Plasma flow simulation using the two-fluid model

The interactions between a plasma and magnetic field are of great interest to the astrophysics and fusion power communities and may be modeled under a wide range of simplifying assumptions. Here, we investigate the fully electromagnetic ideal two-fluid plasma model and compare results with the ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model. In contrast to the MHD approach the two fluid-model simulates ions and electrons separately, allowing the assumptions of quasi-neutrality, small Larmor radius and small Debye length to be discarded. A two dimensional numerical method has been developed which draws on adaptive spatial resolution and locally implicit time stepping to allow for efficient simulation of the two-fluid plasma model. The Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, with background magnetic field, is simulated over a wide range of plasma regimes. Comparison with hydrodynamic and MHD solutions demonstrates the ability of the two fluid model to bridge the gap between these limiting solutions. The two fluid solutions also demonstrate various stages in the suppression of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability due to the presence of a background magnetic field.