Vsim User Guide Release 10.1.0-R2780
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VSim User Guide Release 10.1.0-r2780 Tech-X Corporation Mar 12, 2020 2 CONTENTS 1 Overview 1 1.1 What is VSimComposer?........................................1 1.2 VSim Capabilities............................................1 2 Starting VSimComposer 3 2.1 Running Locally.............................................3 2.2 Running VSimComposer On a Remote Computer System.......................4 2.3 Visualizing Remote Data.........................................5 2.4 Welcome Window............................................5 3 Creating or Opening a Simulation7 3.1 Starting a Simulation...........................................7 4 Menus and Menu Items 15 4.1 File Menu................................................. 15 4.2 Edit Menu................................................ 18 4.3 View Menu................................................ 21 4.4 Help Menu................................................ 21 4.5 Tools/VSimComposer Menu (Settings/Preferences)........................... 21 5 Simulation Concepts 31 5.1 Simulation Concepts Introduction.................................... 31 5.2 Grids................................................... 32 5.3 Geometries................................................ 36 5.4 Electric and Magnetic Fields....................................... 36 5.5 Particles................................................. 41 5.6 Reactions................................................. 43 5.7 Histories................................................. 44 6 Visual Setup 45 6.1 Setup Window for Visual-setup Simulations............................... 45 6.2 Navigation Pane and Simulation Files.................................. 46 6.3 Elements Tree.............................................. 46 7 Text Setup 67 7.1 Introduction to Text Setup........................................ 67 7.2 Setup Basics............................................... 67 7.3 Text-based (.pre) Input File Structure.................................. 71 8 Executing the Computational Engine (Vorpal) 99 8.1 Running Vorpal within VSimComposer................................. 99 i 8.2 Running Vorpal from the Command Line................................ 107 8.3 Running Vorpal on a Cluster using a Queuing System......................... 109 9 Output Data 121 9.1 HDF5 Format Data Output Files..................................... 121 9.2 Dumping Fields, Particles, and GridBoundaries............................. 121 9.3 Change the Names of Output Files.................................... 122 9.4 Displaying the Content of .h5 Files................................... 122 9.5 General Structure of Simulation Output .h5 Files............................ 123 9.6 Columns in Particle Simulation .h5 Output Files............................ 124 9.7 HDFView Example Simulation .h5 Output File Illustration....................... 125 10 Data Analysis 127 10.1 Overview of Using Analyzers...................................... 127 11 Visualization 131 11.1 Introduction to the Visualize Window.................................. 131 11.2 Select the Visualize Icon from the Icon Panel.............................. 131 11.3 Data View Pull-down Menu....................................... 131 11.4 Standard Controls Available Across Multiple Views.......................... 132 11.5 Data Overview.............................................. 136 11.6 Field Analysis.............................................. 142 11.7 History.................................................. 144 11.8 Phase Space............................................... 146 11.9 Binning.................................................. 148 12 Troubleshooting 151 12.1 Troubleshooting Electrostatic Simulations................................ 151 12.2 Troubleshooting Electromagnetic Simulations............................. 152 12.3 Troubleshooting Visual Setup Crashes.................................. 152 12.4 Troubleshooting Plasma Density..................................... 155 12.5 Troubleshooting Missing Secondary Particles.............................. 156 12.6 Troubleshooting Crashes During Stepping of Particle Simulations................... 156 12.7 Troubleshooting Performance...................................... 156 12.8 Troubleshooting MPI failure to start on OSX.............................. 158 12.9 Troubleshooting Windows Permissions................................. 158 12.10 Troubleshooting VSimComposer Visualization............................. 158 13 Advanced Simulation Topics 161 13.1 Running a Parameter Sweep in VSim/Vorpal.............................. 161 13.2 Selecting Solvers and Solver Parameters................................ 162 14 Glossary 163 15 Trademarks and licensing 165 Bibliography 167 ii CHAPTER ONE OVERVIEW This manual demonstrates how to use either the Visual Setup (.sdf input files) or Text Base Setup (.pre input files) to set up a VSim simulation. It then shows how to run the computational engine on the resulting input files, how to perform data analysis in VSim, and how to visualize data. VSim [VSi] is an arbitrary dimensional, electromagnetics and plasma simulation code consisting of two major com- ponents: • VSimComposer, the graphical user interface. • Vorpal [NC04], the VSim Computational Engine. VSim also includes many more items such as Python, MPI, data analyzers, and a set of input simplifying macros. 1.1 What is VSimComposer? VSimComposer provides an interface that allows you to edit and validate your simulation input files, run VSim simu- lations, and visualize results using the VisIt-based Visualization pane embedded within VSimComposer. You can also edit VSim input files in the text editor of your choice, perform calculations with the easy-to-run, command-line-driven Vorpal engine, and then run the visualization tool of your choice. Note: Look and Feel Differences VSim runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. Each of these platforms has its own unique look and feel (e.g. the ordering of buttons in dialogs, and in the case of Mac OS X the arrangement of menus and menu items). Furthermore, the appearance of VSim can vary depending on the theme being used. Given these differences and that screenshots may not always be of the most recent release, please note that screenshots shown in this manual may look different from the VSim that you see running on your own computers. VSim should function the same, but if you look for a particular toolbar or button, it may not be in same place in your copy of VSim. 1.2 VSim Capabilities VSim is a flexible, multiplatform, high-performance tool for running electromagnetic, electrostatic, and plasma simu- lations in 1, 2, or 3 dimensions. VSim solves EM propagation in the presence of complex dielectric and metallic shapes with accurate simulation of curved geometries using a conformal mesh. Examples include: • Dish Antenna • Horn Antenna 1 VSim User Guide, Release 10.1.0-r2780 • Patch Antenna • Waveguides • Far Field calculations • Radar Cross Sections • Crab Cavities The kinetic plasma model is based on the particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm, both in the electromagnetic and electrostatic limits. For electromagnetics, a charge-conserving current deposition algorithm enables the integration of the Maxwell equations without any additional divergence correction. In the electrostatic limit, the VSim computational engine (Vorpal) solves Poisson’s equation at every time step based on the instantaneous charge distribution. Examples include: • Magnetrons • Electron guns • Ion sources • Multipacting in waveguides • Traveling Wave Tubes • Hall Thrusters • Laser Plasma Accelerators The structures within the VSim applications can be arbitrarily shaped and can define the locations of conductors, dielectrics, particle absorbers, reflectors, and other geometrical objects. 2 Chapter 1. Overview CHAPTER TWO STARTING VSIMCOMPOSER 2.1 Running Locally Once you have installed VSim successfully as per the instructions given by VSim Installation, you are ready to run the program. This section will detail how to run VSim locally on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. 2.1.1 Running VSim on Windows You can start VSim in the following ways on Windows: • Select the VSim Icon – Double-click on the VSim shortcut on your desktop – Go to your Start menu, navigate to the Tech-X folder, and click on the VSim icon • Run VSim from the Windows Command Line – Navigate to the relevant program folder by going to Program Files -> Tech-X -> VSim-10.0 -> Contents -> bin – Type in VSimComposer.exe to run the VSim executable and launch the program • Open VSim through Windows File Explorer – Open Windows File Explorer, either through your start menu, desktop shortcut, or taskbar icon – Navigate to C:Program FilesTech-XVSim-10.0 * You can either click on the VSimComposer.lnk shortcut in this folder, or. * Continue on to Contents –> bin and then double-click on VSimComposer.exe • Open VSim using an existing file – Open Windows File Explorer – Select a file that has a VSim-supported extension (like a .pre, .in, or .sdf, for example). Either. * Double-click on the file if its default program is VSimComposer * If its default program is not VSimComposer, right-click on the file and select Open with. Go into Pro- gram Files -> Tech-X -> VSim-10.0 -> Contents –> bin and select the VSimComposer.exe application file. 3 VSim User Guide, Release 10.1.0-r2780 2.1.2 Running VSim on Mac On Mac OS, the methods for starting VSim are: • Start from the Applications Folder – Click on the VSimComposer icon in the Applications/VSim-10.0 folder (or in the folder where you have VSim