Numerical studies and metric development for validation of magnetohydrodynamic models on the HIT-SI experiment

We present application of three scalar metrics derived from the Biorthogonal Decomposition (BD) technique to evaluate the level of agreement between macroscopic plasma dynamics in different data sets. BD decomposes large data sets, as produced by distributed diagnostic arrays, into principal mode structures without assumptions on spatial or temporal structure. These metrics have been applied to validation of the Hall-MHD model using experimental data from the Helicity Injected Torus with Steady Inductive helicity injection experiment. Each metric provides a measure of correlation between mode structures extracted from experimental data and simulations for an array of 192 surface-mounted magnetic probes. Numerical validation studies have been performed using the NIMROD code, where the injectors are modeled as boundary conditions on the flux conserver, and the PSI-TET code, where the entire plasma volume is treated. Initial results from a comprehensive validation study of high performance operation with different injector frequencies are presented, illustrating application of the BD method. Using a simplified (constant, uniform density and temperature) Hall-MHD model, simulation results agree with experimental observation for two of the three defined metrics when the injectors are driven with a frequency of 14.5 kHz. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.