Introduction

Welcome to the SOLPS wiki, home to step-by-step guides on using the SOLPS-ITERopen_in_new transport code! Accessible documentation for beginners is our goal. As the responsible person, Kateřina Hromasová, says:

"I want tutorials that are so easy to understand that I'll be able to use them out of the box after I come back from a three-year maternity leave."

SOLPS wiki logo: a faster-than-light unicorn (why?)

We would like to thank our contributors:

Kateřina Hromasová (main author, mail hromasova@ipp.cas.cz)
Jan Hečko
Aleš Podolník
Irina Borodkina
Daniel Švorc
Oleg Shyshkin
Jakub Seidl
Matěj Tomeš
Diana Naydenkova
Lukáš Kripner

The SOLPS wiki webpage is compiled using MkDocsopen_in_new from its source code, hosted on the IPP Prague's GitLabopen_in_new. If you wish to contribute, read its README.

Navigating the wiki

The wiki has three basic parts:

My first SOLPS simulation. This includes installing SOLPS, creating a simulation, running the simulation, processing its output and adjusting its input.
Feature blog, or making your SOLPS simulation more complex. This includes gas puffing and pumping, impurities, drifts and wide grids.
Supplementary material, which enables using SOLPS at all. This includes the library, remote access, B2.5 input docs, common pitfalls, questions and answers, the energy fluxes deep dive and SOLPS-ITER user wisdom.

When contributing to the wiki, please respect this underlying structure.

First steps

"I don't understand anything and I am scared."

We were scared, too, and we still don't understand much. SOLPS-ITER is, unfortunately, that kind of code. Give it time. Write to mail Kateřina if it isn't getting better. This wiki was written so that the first, terrible, fumbling year doesn't have to be as terrible and fumbling. If all else fails, thesis goals and employers can be changed. Don't let SOLPS disturb your sleep.

If you wish to familiarise yourself with SOLPS and this wiki, I suggest the following:

To learn what SOLPS-ITER is and what it's for, read the brief introduction to SOLPS-ITER below and skim the references therein (generally SOLPS-related theses and articles).
To obtain initial know-how so you can start working with SOLPS-ITER, skim SOLPS-ITER user wisdom, particularly the Dictionary and Useful commands.
Running SOLPS on a different server and transferring the data back and forth is explained in Remote access.
Dive into the installation chapter, starting with The SOLPS-ITER codebase.
Proceed with Creating a new SOLPS-ITER simulation and continue down the list of tutorials, while you refer to Questions and answers and Common pitfalls with problems and issues.

Brief introduction to SOLPS-ITER

SOLPS-ITER is a suite of codes (B2.5, EIRENE, DivGeo, Carre...) which serves to perform 2D (toroidally symmetric) simulations of the tokamak edge plasma. Its strength is self-consistently modelling the interactions between the plasma, neutrals and the wall. It is indispensable for predicting if future fusion reactors will melt their divertors or not.

Beware of clichés

If I had a dollar every time someone called SOLPS-ITER "a workhorse of tokamak edge modelling", I'd be rich.

Further reading:

Chapter 2, SOLPS-ITER, of (study for the PhD thesis of Kateřina Hromasová)
PhD thesis of Antonello Zito
PhD thesis of Kateřina Hromasová
open_in_new X. Bonin 2016: Presentation of the New SOLPS-ITER Code Package for Tokamak Plasma Edge Modelling