ASTRA-8: a modern framework for transport analysis and modelling in fusion devices

Abstract The automated framework Automated System for Transport Analysis (ASTRA) for generating workflows of transport analysis and prediction has been used in the fusion community for the last 40 years. Its extreme flexibility and its interactive character, together with its remarkable execution speed at runtime also for medium computational tasks, make the code particularly attractive, both for modelling and for the design of future devices, or as physics backbone for flight simulators. In this paper we present the full rewriting of the ASTRA code (ASTRA8+), using modern coding style, aiming for modularity, portability and maintainability, as well as compatibility with the new data standard Integrated Modelling and Analysis Suite. In this frame, a new equilibrium solver was coupled, and several heating and transport codes as well. Recent GUI-based utilities allow a user-friendly and comprehensive input generation. The radial parallelisation of physics-based transport models (the bottle neck in ASTRA simulations) has been optimised and accelerated by a factor 4. This modernisation of ASTRA, now an open-source code, enabled an increase of the users pool worldwide and a fast development of this predictive tool for transport in magnetic confinement devices.