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Stellarator magnet quench

Simulating quench events in stellarator fusion magnets (42M+ DoF)

 

Collaborators

proxima_fusion_logo   atled-engineering-logo-trim-1

 

Magnetism A   •   Current flow   •   Heat solid   •   Electromechanics

The challenge

High-Temperature Superconducting (HTS) magnets in fusion reactors face the risk of "quench"—a sudden loss of superconductivity that creates dangerous hotspots.

Simulating a full-scale non-planar Stellarator coil is notoriously difficult because the model requires tens of millions of unknowns to capture the intricate Non-Insulated (NI) winding geometry, often crashing traditional local solvers.

Approach with Quanscient Allsolve

The team used Quanscient Allsolve’s Domain Decomposition Method (DDM) to distribute the computational load across the cloud.

They successfully modeled a 42 Million Degree-of-Freedom (DoF) transient simulation, coupling magnetoquasistatic and thermodynamic physics to capture the complex current redistribution and thermal propagation inside the coil during a fault scenario.

Key results

  • Unprecedented scale: Proved the feasibility of solving 42M DoF models for real-world coil geometries, which allows for full-scale reactor engineering.
  • Critical safety data: Identified a peak hotspot temperature of 170 K and revealed "Magnetic Field Persistence," where the field remains strong even during current ramp-down due to NI coil dynamics.
  • Tech stack: Validated that DDM (Domain Decomposition) is essential for solving large-scale HTS problems in a reasonable timeframe.
Temperature rise around defect.