An Evaluation of a Ray-Tracing Based Model for Photorealistic Image Rendering of Confined Plasma in Stellarators

Abstract

As the world moves away from traditional energy sources based on fossil fuels, several alternatives have been explored. One promising clean energy source is nuclear fusion. The fusion of hydrogen isotopes may provide generous consumable energy gains. However, nuclear fusion reactors are not ready to become a productive mechanism yet. To get a better understanding of plasma, numerical simulations and scientific visualizations over high-performance computing systems are mandatory. The results from the simulations and a proper display of the data are key to design and tune up nuclear fusion reactors. It is also thanks to the international collaboration effort such as the advisory contribution and tools of researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory in the United States in conjunction with the National Center for High Technology of Costa Rica that this work was successfully carried out. In a previous work, we explored a new approach of the scientific visualization of plasma confinement, presenting one model to generate realistic plasma representations. This work presents an evaluation of the expected quality of the images rendered with the created model. We propose a concept called visual plausibility as an evaluation attribute to rate each rendered image by physicists that already know about the plasma appearance.