Fluid Dynamics - Analysing Plasmas in a Tokamak used for Fusion Energy

The centre for Power Transmission and Motion Control (PTMC) has an exciting PhD opportunity to joint their multidisciplinary team.
Fusion, the process that powers the Sun, has the potential to provide carbon-free energy. Devices such as the tokamak, which use magnetic fields to confine plasmas and accommodate temperatures up to an order of magnitude greater than those found in the cores of stars, can be used to achieve fusion in a controlled man-made environment. There is currently an active international research field which bridges the domains of engineering and physics to examine the challenges of generating energy using tokamaks, where extremely hostile conditions prevail. These include the largest known temperature gradient in the universe, as well as exposure to destructive, high-energy radioactive particles. Given these extreme conditions, careful condition monitoring is an essential part of operational tokomaks, necessary to guarantee their continuing integrity.

Tokamak dynamic monitoring systems are routinely used to observe the dynamic behaviour of the tokamak vacuum vessel, magnets, and their supporting structures under fast and energetic events such as Plasma Disruptions and Vertical Displacement Events. This monitoring helps to check for excessive fatigue of critical parts and is helpful for extracting information about plasma behaviour and its effect of the tokamak structure and components. Engineering current and future devices faces several tightly coupled multi-physics problems which require specific numerical tools and methods to solve.

The objective of this PhD project is to reconstruct the dynamic behaviour inside the tokamak using a range of theoretical models and numerical techniques, to generate predictions of the resultant effects on the structure and materials of the machine. Ultimately, the behaviour inside the tokamak could then be monitored at locations where it is impossible or impractical to use sensors or detectors, leading to improvements in safety, performance and operating costs of fusion technology.

The modelling required is of a multi-physics nature and will incorporate a range of techniques, including finite element methods and statistical analysis. It will be important to validate the models and compare predications against experimental data.

This work will be carried out in collaboration with The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). Direct measurement data taken from the recently upgraded MAST-U facility (a world leading research tokamak) at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) will be made available to use in the reconstruction algorithm.

The PhD will be supervised by Dr Nicola Bailey ([Email Address Removed]), Prof Patrick Keogh and Dr Chris Lusty within the centre of Power Transmission and Motion Control.