Carl Sovinec's Research Activities

Isosurfaces of parallel current density from a NIMROD spheromak simulation.

Interests

computational plasma physics and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)
plasma theory
computational fluid dynamics
numerical methods for partial differential equations

Affiliations

Department of Engineering Physics, College of Engineering, Univ. of WI-Madison
Center for Plasma Theory and Computation (CPTC), Univ. of WI-Madison
Department of Physics, College of Letters and Science, Univ. of WI-Madison

Active collaborations outside CPTC

Personal plasma research history

MHD shock dynamics, USAF Phillips Laboratory, 1987-1991
Reversed-field pinch (RFP) dynamics, Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) group, Univ. of WI, 1991-1995
NIMROD code development and spheromak dynamics, T-15, LANL, 1996-2001
RFP, spheromak, and tokamak MHD, NIMROD development, CPTC, Univ. of WI, 2001-present

Graduate students

Chris Carey (Physics)
Eric Howell (Engineering Physics)
Jacob King (Physics)
Nick Murphy (Astronomy)
John O'Bryan (Engineering Physics)

Not-so-selected presentations and talks

"Numerical Analysis of the NIMROD Formulation," with Alan Glasser, International Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference, Madison, WI, 1997. (poster--pdf)
"Three-dimensional Resistive MHD Investigation of Spheromak Sustainment," presented at the Centennial Meeting of the American Physical Society, Atlanta, Georgia, 1999. Bulletin of the American Physical Society 44, no. 1, Part I, paper IB21 4, March 1999. (talk--pdf)
"MHD Simulations of Spheromaks and Low Aspect Ratio Tokamaks with Electrostatic Current Drive," Forty-first Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics, Seattle, WA, 1999. (poster--pdf)
"Recent Algorithmic and Computational Efficiency Improvements in the NIMROD Code," with Steve Plimpton, Forty-first Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics, Seattle, WA, 1999. (poster--pdf)
"Nonlinear Fusion Magnetohydrodynamics with Finite Elements," International Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference, Los Angeles, CA, 2000. (poster--pdf)
"A Comparison of MHD Activity and Nonlinear Dynamics in RFPs and Electrostatically Sustained Spheromaks," presented at Confinement and Stability of Alternative Fusion Concepts, Varenna, Italy, October 2000. (talk--pdf)
"Toroidal Geometry Effects in the Low Aspect Ratio RFP," International Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference, Santa Fe, NM 2001. (poster--pdf)
"Numerical Plans for the NIMROD Plasma Simulation Code," CPTC Seminar, Univ. WI, July 23, 2001. (talk--pdf)
"Simulating Extreme Anisotropy without Mesh Alignment," MHD Working Group, Long Beach, October 28, 2001. (talk--pdf)
"Nonlinear Simulations of Toroidal Geometry RFPs with Sheared Flow," Forty-third Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics, Long Beach, CA, 2001. (poster--pdf)
"Simulating RFP and Spheromak Relaxation with Thermal Transport," Innovative Confinement Concepts Workshop, College Park, MD, 2002. (poster--pdf)
"Numerical Studies of Laminar States and PPCD in RFPs," International Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference, Rochester, NY, 2002. (poster--pdf)
"NIMROD and the Application of Conforming Finite Elements to Nonlinear MFE Simulations," Magnetofluid Modeling Workshop, General Atomics Corporation, San Diego, August 19, 2002. (talk--pdf)
"NIMROD: a Computational Laboratory for Studying Nonlinear Fusion Magnetohydrodynamics," presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society, Orlando, Florida, 2002. Bulletin of the American Physical Society 47, no. 9, paper GI1 4, November 2002. (talk minus movie--pdf)
"Computing Performance Issues for the NIMROD Fusion MHD Code," Cray and Fusion Ultrascale Computing Workshop, ORNL, February 3, 2003. (talk--pdf)
"Capabilities and Highlights of the NIMROD MHD Code," Workshop on Magnetic Self-Organization, Univ. WI, February 17-18, 2003. (talk--pdf)
"Use of Nonsymmetric Algebraic Operators in a Semi-implicit MHD Advance," International Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference, Corpus Christi, TX, 2003. (poster--pdf)
"Analyzing Pulsed Parallel Current Drive and Single Helicity in the Reversed-Field Pinch," Center for Integrated Plasma Studies, CU-Boulder, August 3, 2003. (talk--pdf)
"Combining the Finite Element Method with a Semi-implicit Time-advance for Nonlinear Fusion MHD," presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2003. Bulletin of the American Physical Society 48, no. 7, paper FP1.102, October, 2003. (poster--pdf)
"Spheromak Energy Confinement through Transient Magnetic Symmetry," UW Enginerring Physics Colloquium, November 25, 2003, and LLNL Theory Group Meeting, November 21, 2003. (talk--pdf)
"Integrated Modeling of Spheromak MHD and Energy Transport," International Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference, Missoula, MT, 2004. (poster--pdf)

"Spheromak Transients and Energy Transport," Innovative Confinement Concepts Workshop, Madison, WI, 2004. (invited talk--pdf)

"Spheromak Energy Confinement in Sustained and Transient Conditions," IEEE Intl. Conference on Plasma Science, Baltimore, MD, 2004. (invited talk--pdf) (version given at PPPL NSTX-Theory seminar July 1, 2004--pdf) (associated animation--mpeg)

"Nonlinear Fusion MHD Simulation," PPPL Computational Plasma Physics Group meeting, PPPL, NJ, July 2, 2004. (talk--pdf)

"Successful MHD Simulation Methods in Plasma Physics Applications," presented at Numerical Methods for Plasma Astrophysics: From Particle Kinetics to MHD, a workshop held by the Princeton Institute for Computational Science and Engineering, Princeton University, October 25-27, 2004. (talk--pdf)

"Numerical Simulation of Electrostatic Current Drive in Spheromaks and Spherical Tori," presented at the 46th Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society, Savannah, Georgia, 2004. Bulletin of the American Physical Society 49, no. 8, paper HP1.74, November, 2004. (poster--5.5 Mb pdf)

"Comparing Transient High-Confinement States in Spheromak and RFP Discharges," presented at the 9th Easter Meeting on Stability and Confinement of Magnetized Plasmas Turin, Italy, March 30-April 1, 2005. (talk--800 Kb pdf)

"Analysis of Numerical Algorithms for Two-Fluid Computation," International Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference, Stateline, NV, 2005. (poster--3.4 Mb pdf)

"Nonlinear Extended MHD Simulation Using High-Order Finite Elements," Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing, San Francisco, CA, June 26-30, 2005. ( invited talk--6.8 Mb pdf) version presented to the Math and Computer Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory, July 7, 2005 (talk--2.7 Mb pdf )

"Summary of NIMROD Applications Research in CPTC," CPTC seminar, Sept 12, 2005. (slides--4.2 Mb pdf)

"Semi-Implicit Extended MHD Simulation," presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society, Denver, Colorado, 2005. Bulletin of the American Physical Society 50, no. 8, paper CP1.77, October, 2005. (poster--8.4 Mb pdf)

"Numerical Studies of Line-Tied Kink Modes," presented at the 2006 Innovative Confinement Concepts Workshop, Austin, Texas, 2006. February 13-16, 2006. (poster--15 Mb pdf)

"Implementation and Verification of Two-fluid Modeling in NIMROD," International Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference, Dallas, TX, 2006. (poster--2.3 Mb pdf)

"Numerical Computation for Two-Fluid Reconnection and Dynamo," Center for Magnetic Self-Organization General Meeting, Chicago, IL, Aug 2-4, 2006. (poster--4.1 Mb pdf)

"Two-Fluid Modeling with the NIMROD Code," presented at the 48th Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2006. Bulletin of the American Physical Society 51, no. 7, paper JP1.109, October, 2006. (poster--6.4 Mb pdf)

"Numerical Results on Two-fluid Reconnection and Relaxation with Guide Field," International Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference, Annapolis, MD, 2007. (poster--4.2 Mb pdf)

"Preconditioning the Implicit Hall Advance in NIMROD," International Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference, Boulder, CO, 2008. (poster--2.8 Mb pdf)

"Computation for Two-Fluid Relaxation Physics," Innovative Confinement Concepts Workshop, Reno, NV, 2008. (poster--3.2 Mb pdf)

Unpublished NIMROD-related notes and reports

"1-D Tests of the NIMROD 2-Fluid Algorithm," June, 1996. (pdf)
"New Results with Line Jacobi Preconditioning," May, 1999. (pdf)
"Parallel Global Line Jacobi Preconditioning in NIMROD," June, 1999. (pdf)
"Sound Waves, Thermal Conduction, and the Continuity Equation," August, 2000. (pdf)
"Kinetic Energy Error in the NIMROD Spheromak Simulations," October, 2000. (pdf)
"Computations of Temperature Profiles in Spheromak Configurations with Open Field Lines," October, 2000. (pdf)
"A Tutorial on NIMROD Physics Kernel Code Development," report UW-CPTC 01-3, August, 2001. (pdf)
"Implementing a Stress Tensor Force in NIMROD," January, 2003. (pdf)
"SuperLU Implementation and Timings," August, 2003. (talk-pdf)
"Finite Element Basis Function Continuity Discussion," April, 2004. (talk-pdf)
Updates on parallel scaling: ("NIMROD Scaling Information for Nonlinear Tokamak Simulations Using SLU," 8/13/04, pdf) ("NIMROD Processor-Layer Scaling on Seaborg," 10/4/04 pdf)
"Ohmic Current Drive in NIMROD Simulations," October, 2005. (pdf)
"Axisymmetric Interchange Calculations with NIMROD," report UW-CPTC 07-1, January 9, 2007. (pdf)
"A Formulation of Fluid Parallel Electron Viscosity for NIMROD," April, 2007. (pdf)
"Final Report, Center for Extended MHD Modeling Cooperative Agreement," DOE/ER/54668-7 May, 2008. (pdf)

Journal publications

J. H. Degnan, R. E. Peterkin, Jr., G. P. Baca, J. D. Beason, D. E. Bell, M. E. Dearborn, D. Dietz, M. R. Douglas, S. E. Englert, T. J. Englert, K. E. Hackett, J. H. Holmes, T. W. Hussey, G. F. Kiuttu, F. M. Lehr, G. J. Marklin, B. W. Mullins, D. W. Price, N. F. Roderick, E. L. Ruden, C. R. Sovinec, P. J. Turchi, G. Bird, S. K. Coffey, S. W. Seiler, Y. G. Chen, D. Gale, J. D. Graham, M. Scott, and W. Sommars, "Compact Toroid Formation, Compression, and Acceleration," Physics of Fluids B 5, 2938 (1993).
J. S. Sarff, S. A. Hokin, H. Ji, S. C. Prager, and C. R. Sovinec, "Fluctuation and Transport Reduction in a Reversed Field Pinch by Inductive Poloidal Current Drive," Physical Review Letters 72, 3670 (1994).
E. Uchimoto, M. Cekic, R. W. Harvey, C. Litwin, S. C. Prager, J. S. Sarff, and C. R. Sovinec, "Lower-Hybrid Poloidal Current Drive for Fluctuation Reduction in a Reversed Field Pinch," Physics of Plasmas 1, 3517 (1994).
S. Hokin, J. Sarff, C. Sovinec, and E. Uchimoto, "Confinement Improvement with rf Poloidal Current Drive in the Reversed-Field Pinch," Nuclear Fusion 34, 1447 (1994).
J. S. Sarff, A. F. Almagri, M. Cekic, C.-S. Chaing, D. Craig, D. J. Den Hartog, G. Fiksel, S. A. Hokin, R. W. Harvey, H. Ji, C. Litwin, S. C. Prager, D. Sinitsyn, C. R. Sovinec, J. C. Sprott, and E. Uchimoto, "Transport Reduction by Current Profile Control in the Reversed-Field Pinch," Physics of Plasmas 2, 2440 (1995).
C. R. Sovinec and S. C. Prager, "Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Direct Current Helicity Injection for Current Drive in Tokamaks," Physics of Plasmas 3, 1038 (1996).
G. Fiksel, R. D. Bengtson, M. Cekic, D. J. Den Hartog, S. C. Prager, P. Pribyl, J. Sarff, C. Sovinec, M. R. Stoneking, R. J. Taylor, P. W. Terry, G. R. Tynan, and A. J. Wootton, "Measurement of Magnetic Fluctuation-induced Heat Transport in Tokamaks and RFP," Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 38, A213 (1996).
J. M. Finn and C. R. Sovinec, "Nonlinear Tearing Modes in the Presence of Resistive Wall and Rotation," Physics of Plasmas 5, 461 (1998).
R. E. Peterkin, Jr., M. H. Frese, and C. R. Sovinec, "Transport of Magnetic Flux in an Arbitrary Coordinate ALE Code," Journal of Computational Physics 140, 148 (1998).
A. H. Glasser, C. R. Sovinec, R. A. Nebel, T. A. Gianakon, S. J. Plimpton, M. S. Chu, D. D. Schnack, and the NIMROD Team, "The NIMROD Code: A New Approach to Numerical Plasma Physics," Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 41, A747 (1999).
C. R. Sovinec and S. C. Prager, "Magnetohydrodynamic Effects of Current Profile Control in Reversed-field Pinches," Nuclear Fusion 39, 777 (1999).
J. M. Finn, C. R. Sovinec, and D. del-Castillo-Negrete, "Chaotic Scattering and Self-organization in Spheromak Sustainment," Physical Review Letters 85, 4538 (2000).
C. R. Sovinec, J. M. Finn, and D. del-Castillo-Negrete, "Formation and Sustainment of Spheromaks in the Resistive MHD Model," Physics of Plasmas 8, 475 (2001).
E. D. Held, J. D. Callen, C. C. Hegna, and C. R. Sovinec, "Conductive Electron Heat Flow along Magnetic Field Lines," Physics of Plasmas 8, 1171 (2001).
F. Ebrahimi, S. C. Prager, and C. R. Sovinec, "Resistive-Ideal Transition of Pressure-Driven Instabilities in Current-Carrying Plasmas beyond the Suydam Criterion," Physics of Plasmas 9, 2470 (2002).
C. R. Sovinec, T. A. Gianakon, E. D. Held, S. E. Kruger, D. D. Schnack, and the NIMROD Team, "NIMROD: a Computational Laboratory for Studying Nonlinear Fusion Magnetohydrodynamics," Phys. Plasmas 10, 1727(2003).
R. H. Cohen, H. L. Berk, B. I. Cohen, T. K. Fowler, A. H. Glasser, E. B. Hooper, L. L. LoDestro, E. C. Morse, L. D. Pearlstein, T. D. Rognlien, D. D. Ryutov, C. R. Sovinec, and S. Woodruff, "Theoretical Investigation of Field-Line Quality in a Driven Spheromak," Nuclear Fusion 43, 1220 (2003).
P. Martin, L. Marrelli, G. Spizzo, P. Franz, P. Piovesan, I. Predebon, T. Bolzonella, S. Cappello, A. Cravotta, D. F. Escande, L. Frassinetti, S .Ortolani, R. Paccagnella, D. Terranova, B. E. Chapman, D. Craig, S. C. Prager, J. S. Sarff, P. Brunsell, J.-A. Malmberg, J. Drake, Y. Yagi, H Koguchi, Y. Hirano, R. B. White, C. Sovinec, C. Xiao, R. A. Nebel, D. D. Schnack, and the RFX, MST, EXTRAP T2R, and TPE-RX teams, "Overview of Quasi Single Helicity Experiments in Reversed Field Pinches," Nuclear Fusion 43, 1855 (2003).
C. R. Sovinec, A. H. Glasser, T. A. Gianakon, D. C. Barnes, R. A. Nebel, S. E. Kruger, D. D. Schnack, S. J. Plimpton, A. Tarditi, M. Ch u, and the NIMROD Team, "Nonlinear Magnetohydrodynamics Simulation using High-Order Finite Elements," Journal of Computational Physics 195, 355 (2004). (revised manuscript 8/27/03--pdf)
E. D. Held, J. D. Callen, C. C. Hegna, C. R. Sovinec, T. A. Gianakon, and S. E. Kruger, "Nonlocal Closures for Plasma Fluid Simulations," Physics of Plasmas 11, 2419 (2004).
C. C. Kim, C. R. Sovinec, S. E. Parker, and the NIMROD Team, "Hybrid Kinetic-MHD Simulations in General Geometry," Computer Physics Communications 164, 448 (2004).
S. E. Kruger, C. R. Sovinec, D. D. Schnack, and E. D. Held, "Free Boundary Simulations of DIII-D Plasmas with the NIMROD Code," Computer Physics Communications 164, 34 (2004).
C. R. Sovinec, B. I. Cohen, G. A. Cone, E. B. Hooper, and H. S. McLean, "Numerical Investigation of Transients in the SSPX Spheromak," Physical Review Letters 94, 35003 (2005). (original-length manuscript--pdf)
B. I. Cohen, E. B. Hooper, R. H. Cohen, D. N. Hill, H. S. Mclean, R. D. Wood, S. Woodruff, C. R. Sovinec, and G. A. Cone, "Simulation of Spheromak Evolution and Energy Confinement," Physics of Plasmas 12, 56106, (2005).
S. E. Kruger, D. D. Schnack, and C. R. Sovinec, "Dynamics of the Major Disruption of a DIII-D Plasma," Physics of Plasmas 12, 56113 (2005).
E. B. Hooper, T. A. Kopriva, B. I. Cohen, D. N. Hill, H. S. McLean, R. D. Wood, S. Woodruff, and C. R. Sovinec, "Magnetic Reconnection during Flux Conversion in a Driven Spheromak," Physics of Plasmas 12, 92503 (2005).
D. D. Schnack, D. C. Barnes, C. C. Hegna, E. D. Held, C. C. Kim, S. E. Kruger, A. Y. Pankin, and C. R. Sovinec, "Computational Modeling of Fully Ionized Plasmas Using the Fluid Approximation," Physics of Plasmas 13, 58103 (2006).
Y.-M. Huang, E. G. Zweibel, and C. R. Sovinec, "m=1 Ideal Internal Kink Modes in a Line-Tied Screw Pinch," Physics of Plasmas 13, 92102 (2006).
P. Zhu, C. C. Hegna, and C. R. Sovinec, "Nonlinear Growth of a Line-Tied g-Mode near Marginal Stability," Physics of Plasmas 13, 102307 (2006).
P. Zhu, C. C. Hegna, C. R. Sovinec, A. Bhattacharjee, and K. Germaschewski, "Intermediate Nonlinear Regime of a Line-Tied g-mode," Physics of Plasmas 14, 055903 (2007).
A. I. D. Macnab, R. D. Milroy, C. C. Kim, and C. R. Sovinec, "Hall Magneto-hydrodynamics Simulations of End-Shorting Induced Rotation in Field-Reversed Configurations," Physics of Plasmas 14, 092503 (2007).
P. Zhu, C. R. Sovinec, C. C. Hegna, A. Bhattacharjee, K. Germaschewski, "Nonlinear Ballooning Instability in the Near-Earth Magnetotail: Growth, Structure, and Possible Role in Substorms," J. Geophys. Res. 112, A06222 (2007).
E. B. Hooper, B. I. Cohen, H. S. McLean, R. D. Wood, C. A. Romero-Talamas, and C. R. Sovinec, "NIMROD Resistive Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Spheromak Physics," Physics of Plasmas 15, 032502 (2008).
N. A. Murphy and C. R. Sovinec, "Global Axisymmetric Simulations of Two-fluid Reconnection in an Experimentally Relevant Geometry," Physics of Plasma 15, 042313 (2008).
J. M. Reynolds, C. R. Sovinec, and S. C. Prager, "Nonlinear Magnetohydrodynamics of Pulsed Parallel Current Drive in Reversed-field Pinches," Physics of Plasmas 15, 062512 (2008).

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