Computer modeling of ICF target chamber phenomena

Moses, G.A.; Peterson, R. R.

doi:10.1017/s0263034600007667

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The modeling of the gas dynamics inside a fusion chamber is complex and presents unique challenges [47,58] that prompted in the early 1990s the development of an academic computer code tailored to simulate these phenomena. (Existing codes that might have been used as a starting point were not widely available.)…”

Section: Simulation Code Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gas Transport and Control in Thick-Liquid Inertial Fusion PowerPlants

Debonnel

2006

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Among the numerous potential routes to a commercial fusion power plant, the inertial path with thick-liquid protection is explored in this doctoral dissertation. Gas dynamics phenomena in such fusion target chambers have been investigated since the early 1990s with the help of a series of simulation codes known as TSUNAMI. For this doctoral work, the code was redesigned and rewritten entirely to enable the use of modern programming techniques, languages and software; improve its user-friendliness; and refine its ability to model thick-liquid protected chambers. The new ablation and gas dynamics code is named "Visual Tsunami" to emphasize its graphics-based pre-and post-processors. It is aimed at providing a versatile and user-friendly design tool for complex systems for which transient gas dynamics phenomena play a key role. Simultaneously, some of these improvements were implemented in a previous version of the code; the resulting code constitutes the version 2.8 of the TSUNAMI series.Visual Tsunami was used to design and model the novel Condensation Debris Experiment (CDE), which presents many aspects of a typical Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) system and has therefore been used to exercise the code. Numerical and experimental results are in good 2 agreement.In a heavy-ion IFE target chamber, proper beam and target propagation set stringent requirements for the control of ablation debris transport in the target chamber and beam tubes.When the neutralized ballistic transport mode is employed, the background gas density should be adequately low and the beam tube metallic surfaces upstream of the neutralizing region should be free of contaminants. TSUNAMI 2.8 was used for the first simulation of gas transport through the complex geometry of the liquid blanket of a hybrid target chamber and beam lines. Concurrently, the feasibility of controlling the gas density was addressed with a novel beam tube design, which introduces magnetic shutters and a long low-temperature liquid vortex; this beam tube configuration was included in the first thick-liquid heavy-ion fusion point design, the so-called Robust Point Design 2002. Additionally, novel, alternative thick-liquid chambers that can accommodate the assisted-pinch, the solenoidal final-focusing, or a Z-pinch driver are discussed.Prof.

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Section: Simulation Code Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gas Transport and Control in Thick-Liquid Inertial Fusion PowerPlants

Debonnel

2006

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An embedded boundary method for viscous, conducting compressible flow

Dragojlovic

Najmabadi

Day

2006

Journal of Computational Physics

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The evolution of an Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) chamber involves a repetition of short, intense depositions of energy (from target ignition) into a reaction chamber, followed by the turbulent relaxation of that energy through shock waves and thermal conduction to the vessel walls. We present an algorithm for 2D simulations of the fluid inside an IFE chamber between fueling repetitions. Our finite-volume discretization for the Navier-Stokes equations incorporates a Cartesian grid treatment for irregularly-shaped domain boundaries. The discrete conservative update is based on a time-explicit Godunov method for advection, and a two-stage RungeKutta update for diffusion accommodating state-dependent transport properties.Conservation is enforced on cut cells along the embedded boundary interface using a local redistribution scheme so that the explicit time step for the combined approach is governed by the mesh spacing in the uniform grid. The test problems demonstrate second-order convergence of the algorithm on smooth solution profiles, and the robust treatment of discontinuous initial data in an IFE-relevant vessel geometry.

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