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Add proper ion & electron equilibration#4450

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chris-ashe wants to merge 37 commits into
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fix_equilibration
Open

Add proper ion & electron equilibration#4450
chris-ashe wants to merge 37 commits into
mainfrom
fix_equilibration

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@chris-ashe

@chris-ashe chris-ashe commented Jul 20, 2026

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This pull request introduces significant improvements to the plasma power balance modeling and visualization, focusing on distinguishing between global and species (ion/electron) energy constraints, adding new user controls for confinement time ratios, and enhancing documentation and plotting of equilibration times.

Summary of most important changes:

Physics Model and Documentation Enhancements

  • Expanded documentation in plasma_power_balance.md, plasma_confinement.md, and detailed_physics.md to clearly distinguish between global plasma power balance and species (ion/electron) power balances, including the mathematical formulations, solver recommendations, and new explanations for ion-electron equilibration time and power.

Input and Constraint Handling

  • Added a new input variable f_t_fuel_ion_electron_energy_confinement to allow users to set the ratio of ion to electron energy confinement times, and updated the input validation to prevent simultaneous activation of conflicting power balance constraints (icc=2, icc=3, icc=4).

Visualization and Plotting Improvements

  • Enhanced summary and detailed plasma parameter plots to display individual confinement times (τ_E, τ_e, τ_i), their ratios, and thermal energies for ions and electrons.
  • Added new plots and text boxes for plasma equilibration times between electrons and deuterons, tritons, and alpha particles, both as profiles and volume-averaged values.
  • Updated fusion power profile plots to use clearer variable names for alpha heating to electrons and ions.

Checklist

I confirm that I have completed the following checks:

  • My changes follow the PROCESS style guide
  • I have justified any large differences in the regression tests caused by this pull request in the comments.
  • I have added new tests where appropriate for the changes I have made.
  • If I have had to change any existing unit or integration tests, I have justified this change in the pull request comments.
  • If I have made documentation changes, I have checked they render correctly.
  • I have added documentation for my change, if appropriate.

…ntributions to heating and loss calculations
…bration_vol_avg_mw and update references across the codebase
…onsitency and add derivation to documentation
@chris-ashe chris-ashe added Physics Relating to the physics models Refactor labels Jul 20, 2026
@chris-ashe
chris-ashe requested a review from jonmaddock July 21, 2026 13:42
@chris-ashe
chris-ashe marked this pull request as ready for review July 21, 2026 13:43
@chris-ashe
chris-ashe requested a review from a team as a code owner July 21, 2026 13:43
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2 participants