VSim Capabilities

VSim is a flexible, multiplatform, high-performance tool for running electromagnetic, electrostatic, and plasma simulations in 1, 2, or 3 dimensions.

VSim solves EM propagation in the presence of complex dielectric and metallic shapes with accurate simulation of curved geometries using a conformal mesh. Examples include:

  • Dish Antenna

  • Horn Antenna

  • Patch Antenna

  • Waveguides

  • Far Field calculations

  • Radar Cross Sections

  • Crab Cavities

The kinetic plasma model is based on the particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm, both in the electromagnetic and electrostatic limits. For electromagnetics, a charge-conserving current deposition algorithm enables the integration of the Maxwell equations without any additional divergence correction. In the electrostatic limit, the VSim computational engine (Vorpal) solves Poisson’s equation at every time step based on the instantaneous charge distribution. Examples include:

  • Magnetrons

  • Electron guns

  • Ion sources

  • Multipacting in waveguides

  • Traveling Wave Tubes

  • Hall Thrusters

  • Laser Plasma Accelerators

The structures within the VSim applications can be arbitrarily shaped and can define the locations of conductors, dielectrics, particle absorbers, reflectors, and other geometrical objects.