An Eulerian Vlasov code for plasma-wall interactions

David Coulette (1, 2) , Giovanni Manfredi (2)

1 IJL - Institut Jean Lamour
2 IPCMS - Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg

In this work we present a new Eulerian kinetic 1D3V code devoted to the study of plasma-wall interactions and sheath structure. The code solves the Vlasov-Poisson system for two or more kinetic species on a one-dimensional spatial grid between two limiting plates, in the presence of a uniform magnetic field tilted with respect to the normal to the plates. A source-sink term in the Vlasov equation leads to a stationary solution comprising a magnetic and a collisional presheath, as well as the usual Debye sheath in front of the wall. Thanks to a nonuniform spatial grid the sheath structure can be resolved accurately. Several advection schemes are implemented and the code is parallelized. Here, the code is used to illustrate the problems of a stationary sheath-presheath structure in front of a negatively biased wall, with and without a tilted magnetic field.

Domaines: Physique des plasmas [physics.plasm-ph]

David Coulette, Giovanni Manfredi. An Eulerian Vlasov code for plasma-wall interactions. THEORY OF FUSION PLASMAS, Sep 2014, Varenna, Italy. pp.12005, ⟨10.1088/1742-6596/561/1/012005⟩. ⟨hal-01096760⟩