An optimal penalty method for a hyperbolic system modeling the edge plasma transport in a tokamak

The penalization method is used to take account of obstacles, such as the limiter, in a tokamak. Because of the magnetic confinement of the plasma in a tokamak, the transport occurs essentially in the direction parallel to the magnetic field lines. We study a 1D nonlinear hyperbolic system as a simplified model of the plasma transport in the area close to the wall. A penalization which cuts the flux term of the momentum is studied. We show numerically that this penalization creates a Dirac measure at the plasma-limiter interface which prevents us from defining the transport term in the usual distribution sense. Hence, a new penalty method is proposed for this hyperbolic system. For this penalty method, an asymptotic expansion and numerical tests give an optimal rate of convergence without spurious boundary layer. Another two-fields penalization has also been implemented and the numerical convergence analysis when the penalization parameter tends to 0 reveals the presence of a boundary layer. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.