ThinCurr
(OpenFUSION Toolkit)
3D thin-wall current modeling for fusion reactors, spacecraft, and other conducting structures
May 2023 - Dec 2024
Fusion reactors are developed in an attempt to produce energy from the fusion of hydrogen atoms. This necessitates superheating hydrogen gas into a plasma at over 100,000,000°C, making it impossible to contain conventionally. Many reactor designs opt to contain plasmas magnetically. However, the magnetic coils, reactor components, and charged plasma interact in all sorts of ways, causing instabilities that need to be modeled and understood.
The Solution
ThinCurr is a code accessible as a python module that can quickly and easily simulate different fusion reactor designs, real or conceptual. It models how the currents from various plasmas, coils, and structures inductively couple in 3D. The code uses a finite element method on thin-wall mesh models to find these current dynamics.
My Contribution
I augmented ThinCurr to model a common plasma instability known as a Resistive Wall Mode. ThinCurr can now be used to prevent this instability from occurring. During this process I learned and used many skills relating to dynamical systems, numerical methods, electromagnetism, and plasma physics.
Additionally I benchmarked ThinCurr as a whole against its predecessor VALEN, which modeled reactors in a similar way. I designed and ran test cases for each, and developed file conversion workflow scripts that are easily accessible for those who want to convert there VALEN models to be used in ThinCurr.
Implications
This code is used by startups like Commonwealth Fusion Systems and various institutions to model new and existing reactors. ThinCurr has many more uses yet to be explored for other conducting structures.
Github Link
ThinCurr Paper (Hansen et al.)