University of Texas at Austin physicist Wendell Horton has been using the resources of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) to study the full 3D structure and dynamics of plasma and advance the remarkable science of fusion energy.
Fusion science, which seeks to recreate the energy of the stars for use on Earth, has long been the holy grail of energy researchers. Considering the finite-nature of carbon-based energy sources, it’s no wonder the promise of virtually unlimited energy would be so tantalizing to researchers. But harnessing this energy source has so far remained elusive, despite over six decades of intensive research.
Horton has been striving to better understand fusion energy in collaboration with ITER, a fusion lab in France, and the National Institute for Fusion Science in Japan. At ITER, Horton is working with researchers to build the world’s largest tokamak — the device that may hold the key to producing fusion energy in the laboratory.
Using TACC’s Stampede supercomputer through a UT Austin allocation, Horton modeled plasma flow and turbulence in both fusion power generating tokamaks and in the Earth’s ionosphere.
The tokamak must be designed with incredible precision to increase the odds that it will support the level of intense energy that takes place on the sun. According to Horton, confining the plasma is a major challenge as temperatures are up to 10 times hotter than the center of the sun inside the tokamak.
“Simulations give us information about plasma in three dimensions and in time, so we are able to see details beyond what we would typically get with analytic theory and probes and diagnostic measurements,” said Horton.
Horton is also exploring space plasma physics in the ionosphere, which is known to be disruptive to GPS communications. Horton is using Stampede to model the plasma turbulence on Stampede. And he’s using the Maverick system to develop scientific visualizations that will facilitate deeper insight of plasma dynamics.