Numerical solutions of magnetohydrodynamic stability of axisymmetric toroidal plasmas using cubic B-spline finite element method

A nonvariational ideal MHD stability code (NOVA) has been developed. In a general flux coordinate (/psi/, θ, /zeta/) system with an arbitrary Jacobian, the NOVA code employs Fourier expansions in the generalized poloidal angle θ and generalized toroidal angle /zeta/ directions, and cubic-B spline finite elements in the radial /psi/ direction. Extensive comparisons with these variational ideal MHD codes show that the NOVA code converges faster and gives more accurate results. An extended version of NOVA is developed to integrate non-Hermitian eigenmode equations due to energetic particles. The set of non-Hermitian integro-differential eigenmode equations is numerically solved by the NOVA-K code. We have studied the problems of the stabilization of ideal MHD internal kink modes by hot particle pressure and the excitation of ''fishbone'' internal kink modes by resonating with the energetic particle magnetic drift frequency. Comparisons with analytical solutions show that the values of the critical β/sub h/ from the analytical theory can be an order of magnitude different from those computed by the NOVA-K code. 24 refs., 11 figs., 1 tab