A high performance spectral code for nonlinear MHD stability. (English) Zbl 0795.76063

Taylor, Mark

J. Comput. Phys. 110, No. 2, 407-418 (1994).

A new spectral code, NSTAB, has been developed to do nonlinear stability and equilibrium calculations for the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations in three-dimensional toroidal geometries. The code has the resolution to test nonlinear stability by calculating bifurcated equilibria directly. NSTAB builds on the highly successful BETAS code, which applies the spectral method to a flux coordinate formulation of the variational principle associated with the MHD equilibrium equations.

MSC:

76M25	Other numerical methods (fluid mechanics) (MSC2010)
76E25	Stability and instability of magnetohydrodynamic and electrohydrodynamic flows
76E30	Nonlinear effects in hydrodynamic stability

Keywords:

weak solutions; NSTAB; equilibrium; toroidal geometries; bifurcated equilibria; BETAS code; flux coordinate formulation; variational principle