3D hybrid and MHD/particle simulations of field-reversed configurations

A nonlinear 3D code in cylindrical geometry is being developed for the stability studies of FRC. Two numerical schemes have been implemented: a hybrid scheme with particle ions and fluid electrons, and MHD/particle scheme in which the background plasma is described by MHD equations. And energetic ions are treated via particle simulations. The MHD equations are advanced on a finite-difference mesh in a cylindrical coordinate system, while particle pushing is done on 3D Cartesian grids. Full ion dynamics is retained in order to include large-orbit effects (with s∼1), which are important for the tilt mode stabilization in FRC. Also, in contrast to the previous work, δf method is utilized to reduce numerical noise in the simulations. The code has been benchmarked against previous MHD simulation of tilting instability in FRC. It was found that rigid rotation reduces the growth rate, but does not stabilize the mode even for rotation rates equal to the Alfven time. Sheared rotation is found to be destabilizing for the velocity profile considered. Simulations with a fast ion beam with 1 % of the bulk ion density and s∼3 did not show a reduction in growth rate of the tilting instability. (author)