About

Davide Curreli is a Professor and Donald Biggar Willett Faculty Scholar in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He holds a Ph.D. in Sciences, Technologies and Measures for Space from the University of Padua, Italy, obtained in 2011, along with a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the same university. His academic career at Illinois began as an Assistant Professor in 2013, progressing to Associate Professor in 2019, and then to Professor in 2024. He is also affiliated with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and has served as an affiliated professor in Computational Science and Engineering. Curreli's research focuses on plasma-material interactions, plasma modeling using fluid and kinetic models, transport phenomena in plasmas, and plasma physics and code development for industrial and nuclear applications. His work involves the development and validation of plasma simulation codes, investigation of plasma edge and plasma-material interface phenomena, and the application of machine learning techniques to plasma physics problems. He has contributed to understanding tungsten erosion in tokamaks, plasma sheath dynamics, and the behavior of plasma in various industrial processes. Curreli has also been involved in course development and teaching plasma and fusion science, plasma waves, and computational plasma physics at the University of Illinois.

Research topics

• Nuclear physics
• Physics
• Nuclear engineering
• Materials science
• Chemistry
• Organic chemistry
• Computational physics
• Mechanical engineering
• Engineering
• Chemical physics
• Mechanics
• Composite material
• Inorganic chemistry
• Nanotechnology
• Chemical engineering
• Metallurgy
• Physical chemistry

Selected publications

• Analysis of RF Sheath-Driven Tungsten Erosion at RF Antenna in the WEST Tokamak

  EPJ Web of Conferences · 2026-01-01

  articleOpen access

  This study applies the newly developed STRIPE (Simulated Transport of RF Impurity Production and Emission) framework to analyze tungsten (W) erosion at RF antenna structures in the WEST tokamak. STRIPE integrates SolEdge3x for edge plasma backgrounds, COMSOL for 3D RF sheath potentials, RustBCA for sputtering yields, and GITR for impurity transport and ion energy–angle distributions. Building on prior work by Kumar et al. (2025) Nuclear Fusion, 65, 076039, which validated STRIPE for WEST ICRH discharge #57877, the present study provides a spatially resolved assessment of gross W erosion at both Q2 antenna limiters under ohmic and ICRH conditions. Simulations using 2D SolEdge3x profiles in COMSOL capture rectified sheath potentials exceeding 300 V, leading to strong upper-limiter localization. Both poloidal and toroidal asymmetries are observed and attributed to RF sheath effects, with modeled erosion patterns deviating from experiment—highlighting sensitivity to sheath geometry and plasma resolution. Erosion is driven primarily by high-charge-state oxygen ions (O 6+– O 8+ ), while D + plays a negligible role. Assuming a plasma composition of 1% oxygen and 98% deuterium, STRIPE predicts a 30-fold increase in gross W erosion from ohmic to ICRH phases, consistent with a >25-fold rise in W-I (400.9 nm) brightness. Quantitative agreement is within 5% in the ohmic phase and 30% under ICRH, demonstrating predictive capability. Importantly, the study shows that the magnitude of ICRH-driven W erosion depends strongly on the concentration of light impurities (O, B, N, C), which drive sputtering through high charge states. Cleaner plasma conditions with reduced impurity content are therefore expected to substantially mitigate antenna W sources in WEST and other toroidal fusion devices. These findings establish STRIPE as a predictive framework for RF-induced plasma–material interactions and support its application to reactor-scale antenna design.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Analysis of RF Sheath-Driven Tungsten Erosion at RF Antenna in the WEST Tokamak

  Springer Link (Chiba Institute of Technology) · 2026-01-07

  articleOpen access

  This study applies the newly developed STRIPE (Simulated Transport of RF Impurity Production and Emission) framework to analyze tungsten (W) erosion at RF antenna structures in the WEST tokamak. STRIPE integrates SolEdge3x for edge plasma backgrounds, COMSOL for 3D RF sheath potentials, RustBCA for sputtering yields, and GITR for impurity transport and ion energy–angle distributions. Building on prior work by Kumar et al. (2025) Nuclear Fusion, 65, 076039, which validated STRIPE for WEST ICRH discharge #57877, the present study provides a spatially resolved assessment of gross W erosion at both Q2 antenna limiters under ohmic and ICRH conditions. Simulations using 2D SolEdge3x profiles in COMSOL capture rectified sheath potentials exceeding 300 V, leading to strong upper-limiter localization. Both poloidal and toroidal asymmetries are observed and attributed to RF sheath effects, with modeled erosion patterns deviating from experiment—highlighting sensitivity to sheath geometry and plasma resolution. Erosion is driven primarily by high-charge-state oxygen ions (O6+–O8+), while D+ plays a negligible role. Assuming a plasma composition of 1% oxygen and 98% deuterium, STRIPE predicts a 30-fold increase in gross W erosion from ohmic to ICRH phases, consistent with a >25-fold rise in W-I (400.9 nm) brightness. Quantitative agreement is within 5% in the ohmic phase and 30% under ICRH, demonstrating predictive capability. Importantly, the study shows that the magnitude of ICRH-driven W erosion depends strongly on the concentration of light impurities (O, B, N, C), which drive sputtering through high charge states. Cleaner plasma conditions with reduced impurity content are therefore expected to substantially mitigate antenna W sources in WEST and other toroidal fusion devices. These findings establish STRIPE as a predictive framework for RF-induced plasma–material interactions and support its application to reactor-scale antenna design.

  OA PDFDOI

• Machine learning surrogates for ion energy–angle distributions in thermal and RF plasma sheaths

  Journal of Plasma Physics · 2026-04-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Ion energy–angle distributions (IEADs) at material surfaces are a critical input for plasma–material interaction (PMI) studies in fusion devices, yet they are computationally expensive to obtain using particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. In this work, we develop a machine learning surrogate based on a deep deconvolutional neural network (DDeCNN) trained on large databases generated with the hPIC2 code. The surrogate is capable of reconstructing IEADs from sheath parameters for both thermal and radio-frequency (RF) plasmas, including cases with multiple ion species. Across thousands of test cases, the model achieves high accuracy, with over 97 % of predictions classified as good or average based on standard error metrics (MAE, MSE, L2). Even in the more challenging RF and multi-species regimes, the surrogate reliably captures the multi-peak structure of PIC results. Once trained, the surrogate produces IEADs in milliseconds on a common workstation, yielding speedups of six to seven orders of magnitude compared with running a full PIC simulation. This computational gain enables dense parameter scans and direct coupling of IEAD predictions with PMI and erosion models on whole-device scales in fusion-relevant conditions.

  PublisherDOI

• A block-structured nonuniform meshing technique for reducing the degrees-of-freedom in hybrid particle-in-cell plasma simulations

  Computer Physics Communications · 2025-04-11

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Spectroscopic Measurements and Global Chemical Modeling of Humid Nitrogen Plasma

  ECS Meeting Abstracts · 2025-07-11

  article

  The plasma-assisted transformation of molecular nitrogen and water is of interest for the sustainable and distributed production of ammonia and other chemicals. Both plasma-catalyst and plasma-liquid processes have been studied. However, a detailed understanding of the mechanism has not yet been resolved. Here, we performed diagnostic measurements and developed a kinetic model to provide key insight into the reaction of molecular nitrogen and water in a low-temperature, atmospheric-pressure plasma. Critically, to simplify both experiments and modeling, we focused on a gas-phase, humid nitrogen plasma. Densities of several intermediate species were quantitatively measured by laser-induced and two-photon laser-induced fluorescence, and optical emission spectroscopy with argon as an actinometer. In support of experimental measurements, a global (i.e., zero-dimensional) model was developed, and the densities of species were calculated. Good agreement was found between experiments and modeling. With this validation in hand, the model was used to predict other species and obtain information about their reaction pathways. Notably, we find that the formation of ammonia requires the generation of N, which occurs primarily through the reaction of excited states of N 2 . Further, the density of N exhibits a sudden decrease with increasing relative humidity, which can be explained by a decreased production of N due to competing reactions between excited N 2 and by-products of water activation. Lastly, after N is formed, the oxidative pathway to NO x is favored over the reductive pathway to NH 3 because the reductive pathway has multiple steps with kinetically more significant reverse reactions. This last observation helps to explain the much higher production of NO x over NH 3 , which is typically reported. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences Plasma Science Frontiers program under Award No. DE-SC0023404, and the National Science Foundation ECLIPSE program under Award No. 2212110. This work is further supported by the Princeton Collaborative Research Facility (PCRF, https://pcrf.princeton.edu), which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC02-09CH11466

  PublisherDOI

• Merging Particles into a Fluid in Hybrid Fluid-PIC Plasma Simulations

  2025-03-01

  reportOpen accessSenior author

  Kinetic Fluid (Usually) particle-/Monte Carlo-based Evolve selected moments of distribution Characterizes far-from-equilibrium

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Integrated modeling of RF-induced tungsten erosion at ICRH antenna structures in the WEST tokamak^*

  Nuclear Fusion · 2025-06-13 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract This paper introduces STRIPE (Simulated Transport of RF Impurity Production and Emission), an advanced modeling framework developed to analyze material erosion and the global transport of eroded impurities originating from radio-frequency (RF) antenna structures in magnetic confinement fusion devices. STRIPE integrates multiple physics modules: SolEdge3x for scrape-off-layer plasma profiles, COMSOL for 3D RF rectified sheath potentials, RustBCA for erosion yields and surface interactions, and global impurity transport for 3D ion energy-angle distributions and impurity transport. The framework is applied to an ion cyclotron RF-heated L-mode discharge (#57877) in the WEST tokamak, where it predicts a thirty-fold increase in gross tungsten erosion at antenna limiters during the transition from ohmic to ICRH operation. Additionally, under ICRH conditions, a tenfold enhancement in erosion is observed when comparing RF sheath effects to purely thermal sheath conditions. High-charge-state oxygen ions ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">O</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>6</mml:mn> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> and above) are identified as the dominant contributors to tungsten sputtering. To validate the model, a synthetic diagnostic tool based on inverse photon efficiency (S/XB coefficients) from the ColRadPy collisional-radiative model enables direct comparison with spectroscopic measurements. Model predictions using a plasma composition of 1% oxygen and 99% deuterium show good agreement with observed W − I (400.9 nm) emission for discharge #57877, supporting the accuracy of the STRIPE framework. This study focuses specifically on gross erosion calculations to demonstrate STRIPE’s capabilities. Future extensions of this work will incorporate net erosion, re-deposition, self-sputtering effects, and whole-device modeling of sputtered tungsten impurity transport. STRIPE is also being applied to other RF-heated linear and toroidal devices, offering valuable insights for antenna design, impurity control, and performance optimization in next-generation fusion reactors.

  PublisherDOI

• Multi-physics modeling of tungsten collector probe samples during the WEST C4 He campaign

  Nuclear Fusion · 2024-08-07 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract We describe the results of a multi-scale, multi-physics modeling assessment of SOLPS-ITER, hPIC2, RustBCA and Xolotl, in which five single-crystal tungsten (W) samples were placed in a reciprocating collector probe and exposed to helium (He) plasma in the WEST fusion device. In our models, we considered a pure (100 %) He plasma, as well as one with oxygen (O) present (95% He 5% O) corresponding to the impurity concentration estimated during the C4 He campaign in WEST. Our SOLPS simulations approximately match experimental reciprocating Langmuir probe plasma measurements of plasma density and temperature. Using these plasma parameters as input, hPIC2 and RustBCA predict that the presence of oxygen impurities lead to a 15%–20% decrease in ion and heat fluxes to the surface, and an order of magnitude higher sputtering yields (compared with a pure He plasma). Xolotl predictions for the response of tungsten to plasma surface interactions (PSIs) agree with experimental LAMS analysis, and indicate large near-surface He concentrations, which quickly decay with depth. Our model also shows an increasing role of erosion—in removing the near-surface He—with time. Overall, slightly higher retention is predicted for tungsten exposed to a pure He plasma, with the largest differences in the near-surface gas content caused by the large oxygen-induced erosion. This highlights the important role that impurities play in PSI. Therefore, future work will focus on providing a fully self-consistent description of oxygen (and oxides, etc.) in our models, through multi-species implementation in GITR and inclusion of oxygen and tungsten oxide formation in Xolotl.

  PublisherDOI

• Capture and In-Situ Conversion of CO2 Using Novel Plasma Technology Under Ambient Conditions

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Investigation of Materials for Radio Frequency Antenna Plasma Facing Components

  IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science · 2024-03-27 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  The interaction of radio frequency (RF) sheaths with fusion reactor relevant materials (e.g., tungsten and titanium diboride) is being studied on the RF Plasma Interaction Experiment (RF PIE). The RF PIE consists of an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma source (2.45 GHz, 5 kW) with a biased and heated RF electrode that is used to simulate antenna surfaces in contact with the edge plasma. Helium plasmas (density of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim$</tex-math> </inline-formula> 1e18/m <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{{3}}$</tex-math> </inline-formula> , electron temperature of 4–5 eV) are being used to explore sheath formation on material surfaces with biases up to 500 V. The erosion of a tungsten surface is being studied spectroscopically using a mirror-linked 1 m Czerny-Turner UV imaging spectrometer with a spectral resolution of 0.012 nm for measuring plasma emission in and near the sheath. Tungsten line emission intensity is higher for RF versus dc biasing for similar plasma conditions and average ion energy. RF biasing causes a broadening of the ion energy distribution function (IEDF) due to the RF sheath, as determined from the hPIC2 code, and results in enhanced sputtering. Calculations of the expected sputtering yield for dc and RF biasing are consistent with experimental observations of changes in the 400.9 nm tungsten line emission intensity as a function of ion energy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Proposal: SI2-SSE: An open source multi-physics platform to advance fundamental understanding of plasma physics and enable impactful application of plasma systems

  NSF · $160k · 2017–2019

Frequent coauthors

• D. N. Ruzic

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  54 shared

• Jon Drobny

  Tri Alpha Energy (United States)

  34 shared

• Shane Keniley

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  32 shared

• D. Andruczyk

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  29 shared

• Mikhail Finko

  26 shared

• Brian D. Wirth

  Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  22 shared

• Harry B. Radousky

  Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  21 shared

• Jonathan C. Crowhurst

  Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  21 shared

Labs

• Nuclear, Plasma & Radiological EngineeringPI

Education

• Ph.D., Nuclear, Plasma & Radiological Engineering

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  2000

• M.S., Nuclear, Plasma & Radiological Engineering

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  1996

• B.S., Physics

  University of Rome 'La Sapienza'

  1993

Awards & honors

• Distinguished Early Career Awards from DoE Nuclear Energy Un…