Dans ce travail de thèse, une méthode de pénalisation en volume pour la simulation d'écoulements magnétohydrodynamiques (MHD) en domaines confinés est présentée. Les équations incompressibles de la MHD résistives sont résolues par le truchement d'un solveur pseudo-spectral parallèlisé. La pénalisation en volume est une méthode de frontières immergées, caractérisée par une grande flexibilité dans le choix de la géométrie de l'écoulement. Dans le cas présent, elle permet d'utiliser des conditions aux limites non-périodiques dans un schéma pseudo-spectral Fourier. La méthode numérique est validée et sa convergence est quantifiée pour des écoulements hydrodynamiques et MHD, en deux et trois dimensions, en comparant les résultats numériques à ceux de la littérature et à des solutions analytiques. Dans un second temps, la génération spontanée de moment cinétique et magnétique est étudiée pour des écoulements MHD confinés 2D et 3D. L'influence du nombre de Reynolds et du rapport des énergies cinétique/magnétique est explorée, ainsi que les différences induites par les conditions aux limites. Le fait que l'axisymétrie des frontières résulte en un terme de pression non-nul est primordial pour engendrer de grandes valeurs du moment cinétique. L'exclusivité de cette auto-organisation aux écoulements 2D est étudiée en considérant la MHD 3D en présence d'un fort champ magnétique axial. La suite est consacrée à la simulation d'un fluide conducteur dans un cylindre avec un forçage magnétique axial et poloidal. En faisant varier l'amplitude du forçage poloidal, différents états dynamiques sont atteints. Enfin, l'effet du nombre de Prandtl sur le seuil des instabilitées est étudié. / A volume penalization method for the simulation of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows in confined domains is presented. Incompressible resistive MHD equations are solved in 3D by means of a parallelized pseudo-spectral solver. The volume penalization technique is an immersed boundary method, characterized by a high flexibility in the choice of the geometry of the considered flow. In the present case, it allows the use of conditions different from periodic boundaries in a Fourier pseudo-spectral scheme. The numerical method is validated and its convergence is assessed for two- and three-dimensional hydrodynamical and MHD flows by comparing the numerical results with those of the literature or analytical solutions. Then, the spontaneous generation of kinetic and magnetic angular momentum is studied for confined 2D and 3D MHD flows. The influence of the Reynolds number and of the ratio of kinetic/magnetic energies is explored, as well as the differences induced by the boundary conditions. The fact that axisymmetric borders introduce a non-zero pressure term in the evolution equation of the angular momentum is essential to generate large values of the angular momentum. It is investigated whether this self-organization is exclusively observed in 2D flows by considering 3D MHD in the presence of a strong axial magnetic field. The last part is devoted to the simulation of a conducting fluid in a periodic cylinder with imposed axial and poloidal magnetic forcing, implying a resulting magnetic field. By varying the amplitude of the poloidal forcing, different dynamical states can be achieved. The effect of the Prandtl number on the threshold of the instabilities is then studied.

Untersuchung konvektiver Transportprozesse innerhalb einer auf der Lorentz-Kraft basierenden Strömung während der elektrolytischen Abscheidung.

Le code XTOR-2F simule la dynamique 3D des instabilités MHD bi-fluides de plasmas de tokamaks.La première partie de la thèse a été consacrée à la parallélisation du code XTOR-2F. Le code a été parallélisé significativement malgré la représentation pseudo-spectrale pour les deux directions angulaires, la raideur des équations résolues et l’utilisation d’une décomposition LU exacte afin d’inverser le préconditionneur physique. Le temps d’exécution de la version parallèle est un ordre de grandeur plus petit que la version séquentielle sur un maillage basse résolution. L’accélération croît ensuite avec la taille du maillage. La parallélisation permet également de réaliser des simulations avec des maillages plus grands, autrefois non réalisables par la limitation du stockage en RAM.La seconde partie de la thèse a été consacrée au développement d’une version du code permettant de réaliser des simulations en géométrie à frontière libre, s’approchant de la géométrie des tokamaks expérimentaux de grandes tailles. Les conditions initiales sont fournies par le code d’équilibre CHEASE à l’intérieur du plasma. A l’extérieur du plasma, la solution a été étendue en ajustant le potentiel magnétique avec un ensemble de bobines magnétiques poloïdales externes. Les conditions de bord utilisent des fonctions de Green afin de calculer une matrice de transfert permettant de relier les composantes tangentes et normales du champ magnétique externe à la coque avec la solution interne. Ceci permet de modéliser une coque résistive fine. Cette nouvelle version élargie le domaine d’investigation de XTOR-2F, autrefois restreint aux instabilités internes, aux instabilités externes. Le comportement linéaire du code est validé sur deux familles d’instabilités, les modes axisymétriques n = 0 et les kinks externes n = 1 / m = 2. Afin de valider le comportement non linéaire, des simulations en MHD résistive de modes tearing à bêta nul évoluant vers un état stationnaire ont été réalisées. / The XTOR-2F code simulates the 3D dynamics of full bi-fluid MHD instabilities in tokamak plasmas.The first part of the thesis was dedicated to the parallelisation of XTOR-2F code. The code has been parallelised significantly despite the numerical profile of the problem solved, i.e. a discretisation with pseudo-spectral representations in all angular directions, the stiffness of the two-fluid stability problem in tokamaks, and the use of a direct LU decomposition to invert the physical pre-conditioner. The execution time of the parallelised version is an order of magnitude smaller than the sequential one for low-resolution cases, with an increasing speedup when the discretisation mesh is refined. Moreover, it allows to perform simulations with higher resolutions, previously forbidden because of memory limitations.The second part of the thesis was dedicated to the development of free boundary condition. The original fixed boundary computational domain of the code was generalised to a free-boundary one, thus approaching closely the geometry of today’s and future large experimental devices. The initial conditions are given by the CHEASE equilibrium code inside the plasma. Outside the plasma, fitting the magnetic potential at the CHEASE computation domain boundary with a set of external poloidal magnetic coils extends the solution. The boundary conditions use Green functions to construct a response matrix matching the normal and tangential components of the outside magnetic field with the inside solution. A thin resistive wall can be added to the computational domain. This new numerical setup generalises the investigation field from internal MHD instabilities towards external instabilities. The code linear behaviour is validated with two families of instabilities, n = 0 axisymmetric modes and n = 1/m = 2 external kinks. In order to validate the nonlinear behaviour, nonlinear resistive MHD simulations of tearing modes at zero beta evolving to a stationary state have been performed.

The circumnuclear disc (CND) orbiting the Galaxy's central black hole is a reservoir of material that can ultimately provide energy through accretion, or form stars in the presence of the black hole, as evidenced by the stellar cluster that is presently located at the CND's centre. In this paper, we report the results of a computational study of the dynamics of the CND. The results lead us to question two paradigms that are prevalent in previous research on the Galactic Centre. The first is that the disc's inner cavity is maintained by the interaction of the central stellar cluster's strong winds with the disc's inner rim, and secondly, that the presence of unstable clumps in the disc implies that the CND is a transient feature. Our simulations show that, in the absence of a magnetic field, the interaction of the wind with the inner disc rim actually leads to a filling of the inner cavity within a few orbital time-scales, contrary to previous expectations. However, including the effects of magnetic fields stabilizes the inner disc rim against rapid inward migration. Furthermore, this interaction causes instabilities that continuously create clumps that are individually unstable against tidal shearing. Thus the occurrence of such unstable clumps does not necessarily mean that the disc is itself a transient phenomenon. The next steps in this investigation are to explore the effect of the magnetorotational instability on the disc evolution and to test whether the results presented here persist for longer time-scales than those considered here.

In this thesis, we study a two fluid system which describes the motion of two charged particles in a strict neutral incompressible plasma. We study the well-posdness of the system in both space dimensions two and three. Regardless of the size of the initial data, we prove the global well-posedness of the Cauchy problem when the space dimension is two. In space dimension three, we construct global weak-solutions, and we prove the local well-posedness of Kato-type solutions. These solutions turn out to be global when the initial data are sufficiently small. We also study the stability of the solution around zero given that the initial data is small and has sufficient regularity. It turns out that our system is a system of regularity-loss and the L2 norm of lower derivatives of the solution decays. At last, this two fluid system can be used to derive the classic MHD at least formally. Arsenio, Ibrahim and Masmoudi (2015) proved that the two fluid system converges to MHD under some constraints. We showed numerically that the two fluid system converges to MHD with no such constraint and found the approximate converge rate. / Graduate

Um sistema de bobinas de Mirnov foi construído, calibrado e utilizado para a análise das descargas de plasma no tokamak TCABR. Este sistema é composto de 22 bobinas magnéticas que foram instaladas ao redor de uma seção transversal no interior da câmara de vácuo do TCABR, tendo-se em conta os efeitos produzidos pela geometria toroidal do sistema. Cuidados especiais foram tomados para proteger os enrolamentos das bobinas com relação a ação do plasma, e também para evitar que correntes de Foucault viessem a comprometer o funcionamento do sistema. Para este diagnóstico também foi construído um sistema eletrônico específico para a filtragem e amplificação dos sinais das bobinas, para serem, depois, digitalizadas pelo sistema VME e gravados através do sistema de aquisição de dados do TCABR. Foi desenvolvido, também, um programa para a análise destes dados, baseados no processo da análise de Fourier, de forma a permitir a identificação dos modos de perturbação MHD presentes nas descargas do TCABR. Com esse sistema de deteção colocado em operação, foi então possível investigar as descargas de plasma do TCABR para dois regimes de operação: descargas de 'run-away' e plasma resistivo. Nas descargas com elétrons fugitivos 'run-away', foram observadas estruturas nos sinais de tensão de enlace, H alfa, raios-X duros e bobinas de Mirnov, bastante correlacionados entre si. Nas descargas com plasma resistivo, foi observado que as oscilações de Mirnov no tokamak TCABR possuem freqüências no intervalo de 10 kHz - 15 kHz. Em algumas das descargas também foram observadas correlações entre os sinais de emissão de raios-X duros e as oscilações de Mirnov, bem como correlações entre as flutuações da densidade de partículas e as oscilações de Mirnov. Experimentos com deslocamento horizontal da coluna de plasma permitiram observar como variava o comportamento das amplitudes dos sinais das bobinas de Mirnov. Também foram estudadas algumas descargas disruptivas com plasma resistivo no limite de altas densidades. Pode-se analisar as oscilações de Mirnov e os modos de perturbação antes da ocorrência de disrupturas. Observou-se, por exemplo, que o modo precursor m = 3 é predominante ao longo da descarga mas, antes da disruptura, os modos m = 1, 2, 3 e 4 passam a ser dominantes. Nesta situação a velocidade angular das ilhas magnéticas foi determinada como sendo de 5000 rad/s. Finalmente, utilizaram-se os sinais do sistema de bobinas de Mirnov para algumas análises preliminares envolvendo descargas resistivas com ondas de Alfvèn. Foi observado, por exemplo, que depois de 3 ms de serem ligadas as antenas de Alfvèn, as oscilações de Mirnov geralmente crescem em amplitude enquanto diminuem em freqüência, mantendo-se assim até o final da descarga.

One of the extraordinary properties of the Sun is the observed range of motion scales from the convection granules to the cyclic variation of magnetic activity. The Sun's magnetic field exhibits coherence in space and time on much larger scales than the turbulent convection that ultimately powers the dynamo. Motivated by the scale separation considerations, in this thesis we study the parametric scale selection of dynamo action. Although helioseismology has made a lot of progress in the study of the solar interior, the precise motions of plasma are still unknown. In this work, we assume that the model flow is forced with helical viscous body forces acting on different characteristic scales and weak and strong large-scale shear flows that are believed to be present near the base of the convection zone. In this thesis, we look for numerical evidence of a large-scale magnetic field relative to the characteristic scale of the model flow. The investigation is based on the simulations of incompressible MHD equations in elongated triply-periodic domains. To commence the investigation, a linear stability analysis of the coarsening instability in a one-dimensional periodic system is performed to study the stability threshold in the mean-field limit that assumes large scale separation in the system. The simulations are used to discriminate between different forms of the mean-field α -effect and domain aspect ratio. The notion of scale selection refers to methods for estimating characteristic scales. We define the dynamo scale through the characteristic scales of the underlying model flow, forcing and the realised magnetic field. The aspect ratio of the elongated domains plays a crucial role in all considered cases. In Part II, we examine the dynamo generated by the imposed model flows. The transition from large-scale dynamo at the onset to small-scale dynamo as we increase Rm is smooth and takes place in two stages: a fast transition into a predominantly small-scale magnetic energy state and a slower transition into even smaller scales. The long wavelength perturbation imposed on the ABC flow in the modulated case is not preserved in the eigenmodes of the magnetic field. In the presence of the linear (semi-linear shearing-box approximation) and the sinusoidal shearing motions, the field again undergoes a smooth transition at the slow non-sheared rate, which is associated with the balance of the advection and diffusion terms in the induction equation. Part III considers the nonlinear extension of the analysis in Part II, where the incompressible cellular and sheared flows interact with the exponentially growing magnetic field via the Lorentz force in the dynamical regime. Both sheared and non-sheared helical cellular flows become unstable to large-scale perturbations even in the limit of high viscosity. Due to the helical properties of the imposed forcing, the inverse cascade of helicity leads to energy accumulation in the largest scales of the domain, albeit the characteristic lengthscale exhibits the transitional nature at a highly reduced rate in the mean-field limit. As Rm is increased, the transition resembles that of the kinematic regime. The unique properties of the anisotropic shear reduce the componentality of the system, which in turn is able to half the rate of transition from the large-scale dynamo at the onset to a small-scale one.

No description available.

Doctor of Philosophy / We investigate the linear growth and vertical structure of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in weakly ionised, stratified accretion discs. The magnetic field is initially vertical and perturbations have vertical wavevectors only. Solutions are obtained at representative radial locations from the central protostar for different choices of the initial magnetic field strength, sources of ionisation, disc structure and configuration of the conductivity tensor. The MRI is active over a wide range of magnetic field strengths and fluid conditions in low conductivity discs. For the minimum-mass solar nebula model, incorporating cosmic ray and x-ray ionisation and assuming that charges are carried by ions and electrons only, perturbations grow at 1 AU for B < 8G. For a significant subset of these strengths (200mG < B < 5 G), the growth rate is of order the ideal MHD rate (0.75 Omega). Hall conductivity modifies the structure and growth rate of global unstable modes at 1 AU for all magnetic field strengths that support MRI. As a result, at this radius, modes obtained with a full conductivity tensor grow faster and are active over a more extended cross-section of the disc, than perturbations in the ambipolar diffusion limit. For relatively strong fields (e.g. B > 200 mG), ambipolar diffusion alters the envelope shapes of the unstable modes, which peak at an intermediate height, instead of being mostly flat as modes in the Hall limit are in this region of parameter space. Similarly, when cosmic rays are assumed to be excluded from the disc by the winds emitted by the magnetically active protostar, unstable modes grow at this radius for B < 2 G. For strong fields, perturbations exhibit a kink at the height where x-ray ionisation becomes active. Finally, for R = 5 AU (10 AU), unstable modes exist for B < 800 mG (B < 250 mG) and the maximum growth rate is close to the ideal-MHD rate for 20 mG < B < 500 mG (2 mG < B < 50 mG). Similarly, perturbations incorporating Hall conductivity have a higher wavenumber and grow faster than solutions in the ambipolar diffusion limit for B < 100 mG (B < 10 mG). Unstable modes grow even at the midplane for B > 100 mG (B ~ 1 mG), but for weaker fields, a small dead region exists. When a population of 0.1 um grains is assumed to be present, perturbations grow at 10 AU for B < 10 mG. We estimate that the figure for R = 1 AU would be of order 400 mG. We conclude that, despite the low magnetic coupling, the magnetic field is dynamically important for a large range of fluid conditions and field strengths in protostellar discs. An example of such magnetic activity is the generation of MRI unstable modes, which are supported at 1 AU for field strengths up to a few gauss. Hall diffusion largely determines the structure and growth rate of these perturbations for all studied radii. At radii of order 1 AU, in particular, it is crucial to incorporate the full conductivity tensor in the analysis of this instability, and more generally, in studies of the dynamics of astrophysical discs.

Sous l'effet combiné de la rotation rapide et de l'interaction gravitationnelle avec une lune avoisinante, un corps céleste est elliptiquement déformé (marées). Dans les zones liquides à l'intérieur de la planète, cette déformation rend les lignes de courant elliptiques. Cet écoulement elliptique peut être instable, et des ondes inertielles peuvent croître à des amplitudes importantes. Ce mécanisme offre donc un alternatif à la convection pour exciter des écoulements dans les intérieurs planétaires, et donc aussi pour la génération du champ magnétique par effet dynamo. En première instance, il est important de mieux comprendre comment l'écoulement elliptique évolue après sa déstabilisation initiale. Nous proposons un modèle théorique, et nous étudions les scénarios de transition vers des écoulements de plus en plus complexes dans un système modèle en géométrie cylindrique. Nous mettons en place une expérience qui vise à étudier le même problématique, utilisant un métal liquide comme fluide, et mettant l'ensemble sous champ. Nous montrons qu'il est possible de se servir du champ magnétique induit comme méthode de détection des écoulements excités par l'instabilité. A champ magnétique imposé fort, la force de Lorentz devient non-négligeable et nous montrons comment celle-ci agit sur l'instabilité elliptique. Des études en géométrie cylindrique et sphéroïdales sont présentées. Le problème de la dynamo elliptique est de grande importance à l'échelle géophysique. Par une approche numérique, nous trouvons que les ondes inertielles, peuvent exciter une dynamo. Nous proposons une modélisation théorique pour le mécanisme de la dynamo d'ondes inertielles.