Plotting plasmas could influence fusion

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Other applications

Russel Caflisch and his fellow researchers didn’t start out cold when they began work to simulate hot plasmas.  They’d successfully used their multiscale mathematics approach before, to model rarefied gas flow in the upper atmosphere.  Plasmas are more difficult, however, because the electrical charges of the ions and electrons also interact.

Caflisch says his algorithms – mathematical recipes – could model other phenomena, such as interactions of air with the read-write heads on computer disc drives.  Air must pass under the head to keep it floating just microns above the disc surface.

“It’s like oil in a car,” Caflisch says.  “The way that flows is rather similar, from our point of view, to what’s happening in these rarefied gas flows and in plasma flows.”

Caflisch says the many applications of his work fascinate him.

“What I love the most is the chance to work with scientists and engineers and learn about the technology they’re doing, and to contribute something to that,” he adds.

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