JOREK3D: An extension of the JOREK nonlinear MHD code to stellarators

TL;DR

This paper extends the JOREK nonlinear MHD code to simulate stellarators in 3D, demonstrating stable equilibria and mode growth consistent with other models, advancing stellarator plasma modeling capabilities.

Contribution

The paper introduces a 3D extension of the JOREK code for stellarator simulations, enabling detailed nonlinear MHD modeling of complex stellarator geometries.

Findings

Stable MHD equilibria are preserved in the reduced model.

Flux surfaces remain consistent throughout simulations.

Linear growth rates agree with CASTOR3D results.

Abstract

Although the basic concept of a stellarator was known since the early days of fusion research, advances in computational technology have enabled the modelling of increasingly complicated devices, leading up to the construction of Wendelstein 7-X, which has recently shown promising results. This recent success has revived interest in the nonlinear 3D MHD modelling of stellarators in order to better understand their performance and operational limits. This paper reports on the extension of the JOREK code to 3D geometries and on the first stellarator simulations carried out with it. The first simple simulations shown here address the classic Wendelstein 7-A stellarator using a reduced MHD model previously derived by us. The results demonstrate that stable full MHD equilibria are preserved in the reduced model: the flux surfaces do not move throughout the simulation, and closely match the flux surfaces of the full MHD equilibrium. Further, both tearing and ballooning modes were simulated, and the linear growth rates measured in JOREK are in reasonable agreement with the growth rates from the CASTOR3D linear MHD code.