Fluctuation-induced heat transport results from a large global 3D toroidal particle simulation model

Abstract

Turbulent transport simulation results from a large nonlinear three-dimensional (3D) toroidal electrostatic gyrokinetic particle-in-cell simulation model, including global equilibrium effects, are presented. The parallel implementation of the particle simulation model on massively parallel computers has allowed us to perform large-scale simulations of ion temperature gradient-driven turbulence and to include low-n and high-n toroidal mode numbers in a single calculation. Simulation results indicate a strong interaction between these short and long wavelength scales and that this is the possible origin of a Bohm-like ion thermal transport scaling. The inclusion of trapped electron dynamics and self-generated shear flows on the fluctuation dynamics is shown to produce quantitative differences in the ion thermal transport.