State-of-the-art stellarator optimization code
This tutorial is designed to help the new user to VMEC understand the VMEC input namelist and what options are available.
The VMEC code is controlled through a FORTRAN input namelist called INDATA. A FORTRAN input namelist is simply a text file where variable values may be set in a straightforward fashion. They may then be read into a program to initialize various variables. It is important to note that while variables in a given namelist may be omitted from a file the file must not contain unknown variable names. The VMEC code looks for a file (in the current directory) by the name of ‘input.ext’ where ‘ext’ is the extension passed to it as a command line option. This file should contain an input namelist by the name of ‘INDATA.’ Multiple input namelists may exist in a text file. Each list is denoted by a ‘&’ followed by the input namelist name. Each namelist is terminated by the ‘/’ (forward-slash) character. There are various examples in the tutorial section.
The VMEC input namelist can be broken down into sections according to what the different variables control. For the rest of this tutorial we will examine each section giving detailed descriptions of how the choice of variables affects the execution of the code. A full version of this file can be found here:
The VMEC input namelist is declared ‘INDATA’ and is the first line of the namelist. Various parameters control the execution of the VMEC code. The DELT parameter controls the evolution of the VMEC solution (in a sense the stepsize between equilibria). The NITER parameter determines the maximum numer of iterations for a given solution at a given radial resolution. The solver will actually run for twice this value if it has not converged, and print out a message to this effect. The NSTEP parameter determines the number of iterations between outputs of the progress towards convergence. The TCON0 parameter controls the constrained force calculation. It’s value is set to 1.0 for any value greater than 1.0. The NS_ARRAY determines the number of radial grid points to use for each equilibrium calculation. The FTOL_ARRAY parameter determines the cutoff in the normalized force residuals for each radial grid. Once a given value of FTOL_ARRAY is reached at a given NS_ARRAY radial mesh the solver moves on to the next radial grid. The NITER_ARRAY determines the number of iterations at a given radial resolution. If the value in the corresponding FTOL_ARRAY has not been meet in NITER_ARRAY steps, the code moves to the next radial grid. The LWOUTTXT logical variable controls how the output is saved. If set to FALSE (default) the wout file will be output in netCDF. If set TRUE then a text file will be generated. If compiled without netCDF then code will output text wout files.
&INDATA
DELT = 9.00000000000000E-01
NITER = 10000
NSTEP = 200
TCON0 = 1.00000000000000E+00
NS_ARRAY = 9 29 49 99
FTOL_ARRAY = 1.00000000000000E-08 1.00000000000000E-10 1.00000000000000E-12 1.00000E-14
NITER_ARRAY= 2000 3000 5000 10000
LWOUTTXT = F
The VMEC computational domain is controlled through these parameters. The LASYM parmeter (T/F) determines if up/down symmetry is to be violated. This value is defaulted to false (stellarator symmetry). The NFP parameter controls the periodicity of the simulation. This allows for a significant reduction in the number of toroidal modes. The MPOL parameter controls the total number of poloidal modes the simulation uses (m=0...MPOL-1). The NTOR parameter controls the total number of toroidal modes (n=-NTOR...NTOR). Internally the NFP variable and n are combined allowing for an efficient reduction in computational effort. The PHIEDGE parameter controls the total enclosed toroidal flux. In essence this controls the total volume of the plasma, by scaling the choice of boundary coefficients to match the value found in PHIEDGE.
LASYM = F
NFP = 10
MPOL = 8
NTOR = 6
PHIEDGE = 8.28000000000000E-01
To preform a run in free boundary mode VMEC must be supplied various parameters. The LFREEB parameter (T/F) indicates if the code should be executed in free boundary mode. The MGRID_FILE parameter indicates the location of the ‘mgrid’ file which contains the vacuum magnetic field on a grid in R,Z and PHI. The NTHETA parameter determines the number of points in theta to use to represent the VMEC flux surfaces. This value defaults to 2*(MPOL)+6, and in the strict sense is not just a free boundary parameters. The NZETA parameter determines the number of gridpoints in zeta/phi to use. This value must be equal to the number of phi planes in the ‘mgrid’ file, for free boundary runs. The default value is 2*NTOR+4 unless NTOR=0 then it defaults to 1. The EXTCUR parameter is an array specifying the current in each current group found in the ‘mgrid’ file. The NVACSKIP parameter determines the number of steps between update of the vacuum solution.
LFREEB = T
MGRID_FILE = '/home/usr/coils/mgrid.lhd_ys4.msize'
NTHETA = 22
NZETA = 32
NVACSKIP = 6
EXTCUR = 4.82137988281250E+03 3.14672241210938E+03 2.13679345703125E+03 -5.03201074218750E+03 -3.84028015136719E+02 3.77810131835938E+03
The pressure profile in VMEC is specified as a function of radial flux space coordinates (s). Where for the default case is the normalized toroidal flux (normalized to PHIEDGE). If LRFP is set to TRUE, this coordinates becomes the normalized poloidal flux. The AM parameter determines the polynomial coefficients (0..10) used to calculate pressure profile: \(p=\sum_{n=0}^{10} am(n) * s^n .\) The GAMMA parameter controls this profile by scaling it. In general the user should choose it’s value to be 0.0. The BLOAT parameter acts as a scaling factor to s. Again it’s value should be chosen to be 1.0. The SPRES_PED parameter is that value of s at which the pressure is flat. This allows modeling of pedestal pressure profiles. In general it should be set to 1.0 equating to the boundary in normalized coordinates. The PRES_SCALE value is a scale factor applied to the profile allowing it to be scaled up and down. Note the current version (8.47) provides the user with more detailed ways of specifying the pressure profiles. The user is encourage to examine the profile_functions.f file for details (see VMEC Advanced Profiles).
GAMMA = 0.00000000000000E+00
BLOAT = 1.00000000000000E+00
SPRES_PED = 1.00000000000000E+00
PRES_SCALE = 1.0
AM = 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00
The VMEC code provides the user an option to specify either a rotational transform radial profile or a toroidal current density profile. The NCURR parameter determine which form of the profile to use (0: Rotational Transform, 1: Toroidal Current Density). The AI parameter specifies the polynomial coefficients (0..10) used to calculate the rotational transform profile (NCURR=0) \(\iota=\sum_{n=0}^{10} ai(n) * s^n .\) The AC_FORM parameter determines the form of the current profiles used (NCURR=1). For AC_FORM=0 the toroidal current profile is power series in s defined by the AC parameter \(j=\sum_{n=0}^{10} ac(n) * s^n .\)
NCURR = 1
CURTOR = 0.00000000000000E+00
AI = 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00
AC = 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00
The VMEC code needs an initial guess for the magnetic axis. These values are specified as Fourier harmonics in toroidal mode number (n=0..NTOR). The RAXIS parameter stores the cosine then sine harmonics while the ZAXIS parameter stores the sine then cosine harmonics.
RAXIS = 3.80000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00
ZAXIS = 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00 0.00000000000000E+00
The VMEC boundary is specified in terms of Fourier harmonics. The RBC parameter store the radial Fourier coefficients while the ZBS parameter stores the vertical Fourier coefficients. The RBS and ZBC parameters are provided for axisymmetric runs.
RBC( 0,0) = 3.80
ZBS( 0,0) = 0.00
RBC( 0,1) = 0.30
ZBS( 0,1) = 0.60
RBC(-1,1) = -0.15
ZBS(-1,1) = 0.30