New code that fuses complex magnetic puzzles to cut design time

New computer code developed by Princeton physicists could greatly accelerate the path to practical fusion energy by solving one of the most ongoing challenges in the field: balancing ideal physics with the challenges engineers actually build.

The code, called Quadcoil, can evaluate complex magnet designs in just 10 seconds – a task that typically performs traditional procedures between 20 minutes and several hours. This breakthrough in efficiency could make excellent fusion equipment a promising but notorious type of complexity – the construction is more expensive.

“Four guns can quickly predict the complexity of magnets, helping you avoid the physical plasma shape, but it won’t help actually building a fusion facility,” said Frank Fuu, a graduate student in Plasma Physics in Princeton.

This development is a critical moment in convergence research, and as scientists develop practical convergence energy systems around the world, these competitions can ultimately provide a wealth of cleaning capabilities without the need for radioactive waste associated with conventional nuclear fission.

Excellent challenge

Stars represent one of the most promising ways to fusion energy, but their complex, twisted magnetic field design makes it both expensive and difficult to build compared to their symmetrical cousin Tokamaks.

Unlike traditional design methods that deal with plasma physics and engineering requirements separately, Quadcoil integrates basic engineering considerations from the beginning of the design process.

Fu explained the concept with an analogy: “Think of two teams building a car engine: one designed the engine, and the other designed the engine. In a sense, Quadcoil takes a person from the construction group The team moved to the design team to keep an eye on how the design might affect the final product. The estimate will be rougher than actually building the car and adding up to cost than the estimate you get, but the process is faster and leads to wise specifications.”

This study draws PPPL’s ​​expertise in complex plasma computer code with its long history of developing excellent stellar developments – a concept originated from 70 years ago.

Three key innovations

According to the research team, Quadcoil offers three different advantages in existing methods: speed, other prediction capabilities, and flexibility.

Not only does this code calculate magnet configuration faster than previous methods, but it also generates data about properties that other codes cannot, including the curvature of the magnets and the magnetic force they experience.

“In short, Quadcoil has three innovations: It can compute faster and predict more properties than other codes can and flexible,” Fook said.

The flexibility extends to allow scientists to input various engineering specifications, resulting in magnet shapes that are more relevant to their specific needs. These specifications may include information about the magnet material and shape.

Making integration more affordable

The cost impact may be huge. By quickly filtering out designs that require too many complex magnets, researchers can focus on a feasible configuration that maintains good plasma performance.

“One of the main challenges for people who design great is that magnets can have complex shapes that are difficult to build,” said Elizabeth Paul, assistant professor of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at Columbia University. “This question tells us that we need to consider the complexity of the magnet at the beginning. If we can use computer code to find plasma shapes with the physical properties we want, and we can form them with magnets with simple shapes, then we can make the fusion energy cheaper.”

To make converged energy commercially feasible, it is crucial to keep performance while reducing construction costs – exactly what quadcoil is designed to achieve.

expect

FU and his collaborators are already working on enhanced versions of Quadcoil, which will not simply evaluate the design to actively recommend improved plasma shape.

Although the current prototype runs on standard laptops, the team expects future versions to require more powerful hardware with advanced graphics processing units. FU also plans to integrate Quadcoil into a larger software suite for comprehensive stellar design.

“The people who develop great things need a lot of calculations,” Fu said. “I’m trying to make the design process as smooth as possible.”

The study involved collaborators from multiple institutions, including Alan Kaptanoglu of the Courant School of Mathematical Sciences at NYU and Amitava Bhattacharjee, former director of theory at PPPL. Financial support comes from the Department of Energy’s scientific discoveries through the Advanced Computing Program and the Simmons Foundation.

With the pursuit of practical and converged energy, computing tools like Quadcoil represent key stepping stones to make what once considered a distant dream increasingly possible. By bridging the gap between theoretical physics and practical engineering limitations, this innovation can help accelerate Fusion’s journey from lab curiosity to commercial power supplies.