Welcome to the web page of the Fluid and Plasma Dynamics / Dynamique des Fluides et des Plasmas research unit

The group has research activities in many domains of fluid and plasma physics. Analytical, modelling and numerical techniques are developed to study both fundamental and applied problems in fusion plasma physics, conductive fluid flows and turbulence. In fusion plasma physics, we are interested in both the kinetic and the fluid description of the plasma, including magnetohydrodynamic effects, heating, neoclassical transport theories and turbulence. The dynamics of conductive fluids is mainly considered for low magnetic Reynolds number flows. The influence of inhomogeneous magnetic fields and heat transport phenomena are considered, inlcuding their applications to liquid metal blankets for fusion reactor. Numerical studies of turbulence are performed using direct numerical simulation (DNS) as well as large-eddy simulation (LES). Subgrid-scale modelling for LES of both Navier-Stokes and magnetohydrodynamic equations is considered. In most of our activities, simulation are performed using parallel computing. The group has developed parallel codes and designed parallel computing architectures (beowulf clusters).

Research Topics

  • Fusion Plasma
    • Kinetic theory of fusion plasmas
    • Radio frequency heating
    • Stochastic modelling
    • One and two-fluid descriptions of fusion plasmas
  • Dynamics of conductive fluids
    • Magnetohydrodynamics
    • Low magnetic Reynolds number flows
    • Application to liquid metal blankets in fusion reactors
  • Numerical simulation of turbulence
    • Spectral methods for Navier-Stokes and magnetohydrodynamic turbulence simulations
    • Direct numerical simulation
    • Subgrid-scale modelling and large-eddy simulation
    • Development of a solver for arbitrary geometries with one direction of periodicity (SFELES)
  • Parallel computing
    • Design and building of beowulf clusters
    • Parallel code development
    • Expertise in different fluid/particle numerical approaches: MHD, SPH, SPH+MHD, PIC.
  • Gas and plasma dynamics with turbulent fluctuations: astrophysical and solar/space plasma applications
    • Galaxy formation, jets from accretion disks and related instabilities (Rayleigh-Taylor, Kelvin-Helmoltz, ...)
    • Turbulent reconnection within the solar environment and in the solar wind
    • Particle acceleration mechanisms during solar explosive phenomena (solar flare, c.m.e., ...) and their propagation throughout the interplanetary medium

Fundings

European Fusion Programme (EFDA, EURATOM, BROADER APPROACH)
PAI Programme (Belgian State): CHARM ("Contemporary physical challenges for Heliospheric and AstRophysical Models") Network
Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique - FNRS (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles)

Collaborations

CHARM Network:
Centre for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics, KU Leuven (http://wis.kuleuven.be/CmPA)
Sterrenkundig Observatorium UGent (http://www.astro.ugent.be)
Solar physics research department of ROB (http://www.sidc.be)
Solar Wind research unit of BISA (http://www.aeronomie.be)
Computational Astrophysics at Leiden University (http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl)
Institute for Computational Cosmology at University of Durham (http://icc.dur.ac.uk)