Analysis of plasma instabilities and verification of the BOUT code for the Large Plasma Device P. Popovich,1 M.V. Umansky,2 T.A. Carter,1, a) and B. Friedman1 1)Department of Physics and Astronomy and Center for Multiscale Plasma Dynamics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547 2)Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA (Dated: 8 August 2018) The properties of linear instabilities in the Large Plasma Device [W. Gekelman et al., Rev. Sci. Inst., 62, 2875 (1991)] are studied both through analytic calculations and solving numerically a system of linearized collisional plasma fluid equations using the 3D fluid code BOUT [M. Umansky et al., Contrib. Plasma Phys. 180, 887 (2009)], which has been successfully modified to treat cylindrical geometry. Instability drive from plasma pressure gradients and flows is considered, focusing on resistive drift waves, the Kelvin-Helmholtz and rotational interchange instabilities. A general linear dispersion relation for partially ionized collisional plasmas including these modes is derived and analyzed. For LAPD relevant profiles including strongly driven flows it is found that all three modes can have comparable growth rates and frequencies. Detailed comparison with solutions of the analytic dispersion relation demonstrates that BOUT accurately reproduces all characteristics of linear modes in this system. PACS numbers: 52.30.Ex, 52.35.Fp, 52.35.Kt, 52.35.Lv, 52.65.Kj arXiv:1004.4674v4 [physics.plasm-ph] 26 Jan 2011 a)Electronic mail:
[email protected] 1 I. INTRODUCTION Understanding complex nonlinear phenomena in magnetized plasmas increasingly relies on the use of numerical simulation as an enabling tool.