The area of high-performance computing (HPC), also known as supercomputing, involves managing hundreds and thousands of processors that operate in parallel to analyze massive amounts of data or solve complex scientific and engineering problems much faster. than in an ordinary computer. Research in high-performance computing is very varied and ranges from the optimization of scientific codes to the development of new parallel programming models for the management of massive computing architectures. From the CNCA, we collaborate with scientists from multiple areas of knowledge in the development of applications optimized for supercomputers as well as in the research of specific topics in the development of high-performance computing.
Nuclear fusion research aims to explore a new renewable, safe, clean, and environmentally friendly source of energy that uses hydrogen. The Tokamaks and Stellarators devices heat the plasma and magnetically confine it, thus allowing controlled nuclear processes to start between the isotopes of hydrogen called Deuterium and Tritium. Studies indicate that a gram of hydrogen in these devices would produce 26,000 kWh, making this technology the best currently known option to supply humanity's future energy demand. The development of plasma magnetic confinement devices for nuclear fusion largely depends on computational simulations that enable modeling, verification, and visualization of plasma behavior and its response to physical phenomena. As part of its research, the Plasma Laboratory for Fusion Energy and Applications of the Costa Rica Institute of Technology developed and used the BS-SOLCTRA (Biot-Savart Solver for Compute and Trace Magnetic Fields) code in the process of design and verification of its Stellarator-type magnetic confinement device called SCR-1. The CNCA's high-performance computing area collaborates with that laboratory to optimize, extend, and add the ability to generate scientific visualizations to the simulator that reveal more complex details of plasma dynamics. This project seeks to supply the need to add complexity to the used simulation models and generate scientific visualizations through an infrastructure that unifies the workflow of researchers. In this way, the verification and design process of new Stellarator-type magnetic confinement devices in Costa Rica will be improved through advanced computing.
Computational plasma simulation infrastructure for design and verification of Stellarator-type magnetic confinement devices