Spherically Imploding Plasma Liners as a Standoff Driver for Magnetoinertial Fusion

Hsu, S. C.; Awe, T. J.; Brockington, Samuel; Case, Andrew; Cassibry, Jason; Kagan, Grigory; Messer, Sarah; Stanić, Miloš; Tang, Xian-Zhu; Welch, D. R.; Witherspoon, F. D.

doi:10.1109/tps.2012.2186829

Cited by 81 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…The latter is envisioned as a standoff driver for MIF. 2, 3,6,7,47,48 The dynamics arising in the jet merging, e.g., shock formation, sets the properties of the subsequent, merged plasma that ultimately determines the liner uniformity and peak ram pressure (ρv 2 ). These physics issues have been considered recently via theory and numerical modeling.…”

Section: On the Use Of Merging Plasma Jets For Forming Sphericallmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental evidence for collisional shock formation via two obliquely merging supersonic plasma jets

et al. 2014

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We report spatially resolved measurements of the oblique merging of two supersonic laboratory plasma jets. The jets are formed and launched by pulsed-power-driven railguns using injected argon, and have electron density ∼ 10 14 cm −3 , electron temperature ≈ 1.4 eV, ionization fraction near unity, and velocity ≈ 40 km/s just prior to merging. The jet merging produces a few-cm-thick stagnation layer, as observed in both fastframing camera images and multi-chord interferometer data, consistent with collisional shock formation [E. C. Merritt et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 085003 (2013)].

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Section: On the Use Of Merging Plasma Jets For Forming Sphericallmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental evidence for collisional shock formation via two obliquely merging supersonic plasma jets

et al. 2014

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“…17 Single-jet parameters and evolution have been characterized experimentally 29 in preparation for using an array of thirty such jets to form spherically imploding plasma liners as a standoff compression driver for magnetoinertial fusion. 30 For these collisionless shock studies, lowerdensity (10 14 -10 16 cm À3 ) and higher-velocity ($100 km/s) jets are desired; this is accomplished primarily by reducing the injected mass for a given gun current.…”

Section: Numerical Models and Simulation Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle-in-cell simulations of collisionless shock formation via head-on merging of two laboratory supersonic plasma jets

2013

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We describe numerical simulations, using the particle-in-cell (PIC) and hybrid-PIC code Lsp [T. P. Hughes et al., Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 2, 110401 (1999)], of the head-on merging of two laboratory supersonic plasma jets. The goals of these experiments are to form and study astrophysically relevant collisionless shocks in the laboratory. Using the plasma jet initial conditions (density ∼ 10 14 -10 16 cm −3 , temperature ∼ few eV, and propagation speed ∼ 20-100 km/s), large-scale simulations of jet propagation demonstrate that interactions between the two jets are essentially collisionless at the merge region. In highly resolved one-and two-dimensional simulations, we show that collisionless shocks are generated by the merging jets when immersed in applied magnetic fields (B ∼ 0.1-1 kG). At expected plasma jet speeds of up to 100 km/s, our simulations do not give rise to unmagnetized collisionless shocks, which require much higher velocities. The orientation of the magnetic field and the axial and transverse density gradients of the jets have a strong effect on the nature of the interaction. We compare some of our simulation results with those of previously published PIC simulation studies of collisionless shock formation.

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“…Mixing mechanisms that could possibly occur in plasma jet driven magneto-inertial fusion (PJMIF) 5,6 during the plasma liner collapse could be detrimental to the achievable peak pressure. Increased turbulent mixing are likely to enhance heat transfer via convection therefore lowering peak temperature and pressure and reducing the effective radius of the hotspot.…”

Section: Sph Particle Mixing During Implosionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tendency of spherically imploding plasma liners formed by merging plasma jets to evolve toward spherical symmetry

et al. 2012

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Three dimensional hydrodynamic simulations have been performed using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) in order to study the effects of discrete jets on the processes of plasma liner formation, implosion on vacuum, and expansion. The pressure history of the inner portion of the liner was qualitatively and quantitatively similar from peak compression through the complete stagnation of the liner among simulation results from two one dimensional radiationhydrodynamic codes, 3D SPH with a uniform liner, and 3D SPH with 30 discrete plasma jets.Two dimensional slices of the pressure show that the discrete jet SPH case evolves towards a profile that is almost indistinguishable from the SPH case with a uniform liner, showing that non-uniformities due to discrete jets are smeared out by late stages of the implosion. Liner formation and implosion on vacuum was also shown to be robust to Rayleigh-Taylor instability growth. Interparticle mixing for a liner imploding on vacuum was investigated. The mixing rate was very small until after peak compression for the 30 jet simulation.

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Spherically Imploding Plasma Liners as a Standoff Driver for Magnetoinertial Fusion

Cited by 81 publications

References 48 publications

Experimental evidence for collisional shock formation via two obliquely merging supersonic plasma jets

Experimental evidence for collisional shock formation via two obliquely merging supersonic plasma jets

Particle-in-cell simulations of collisionless shock formation via head-on merging of two laboratory supersonic plasma jets

Tendency of spherically imploding plasma liners formed by merging plasma jets to evolve toward spherical symmetry

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