Home > The European Integrated Modelling (EU-IM) approach
The European Integrated Modelling (EU-IM) approach
The choice of Integrated Modelling made by the former EFDA ITM-TF and pursued now under EUROfusion WPCD
is unique and original: it entails the development of a comprehensive and completely
generic tokamak simulator including both the physics and the machine,
which can be applied for any fusion device.
The simulation platform was designed to be fully modular, flexible, and independent of a
programming language. The choice of modularity implies that each
module contains a single physical model and that the communication
between the modules is standardised: a set of common rules (ontology)
clearly specify the format of the data to be consistently exchanged
between modules (data-structure). The complexity of coupling the
codes together is therefore transferred to the definition of a generic
data-structure (allowing to describe and exchange information
concerning both physical quantities and technical objects, not
assuming the origin of those), extensible to allow the integration of
new physics, as well as more elaborate machine geometries and
experimental data in the future.
A central project is the development of the so-called European Transport Simulator (ETS)
aimed to meet all the EU-IM requirements, namely modularity, flexibility and
standardized interfaces.
In terms of the physics, the ETS is designed to solve the standard set of one-dimensional time dependent equations
which describe the evolution of the core plasma. The solver itself is designed with a modular approach enabling the separation of the
physics from the numerics, thereby facilitating the testing/usage of
the numerical schemes that best suit a particular physical simulation.
last update: 2016-02-01 by dpc
last update: 2016-02-01 by dpc