A Computational Framework for Multiscale Simulations of Weakly Ionized Plasmas

The goal of the proposed research is to develop a unified computational framework integrating adequate physical models for simulating complex non-equilibrium plasmas. Plasma dynamics is characterized by disparate spatial and temporal scales each described by appropriate physical models. The project aims to classify possible scenarios and develop general recipes for clustering phase space to dynamically separate sub-structures at different scales, efficiently solve the dynamics for each scale, provide an accurate interface between the different scales and a control mechanism to verify the accuracy of the scale separation and inter-scale mappings. The project will utilize previous experience of CFD Research Corporation on the development of multi-scale, multi-physics computational tools with experience of selected academic partners in kinetic theory and mathematical modeling of physical systems. Powerful theoretical tools including the renormalization group (RG) approach among other methods will be used to relate the particle dynamics on different scales by deriving equations averaged over fast scales and coupling kinetic and continuum models. In Phase II, the developed computational framework will be implemented in the next generation software for multi-scale plasma simulations. Selected test cases will be used to validate the physical models and demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the software.