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Title: Compression of a spherically symmetric deuterium-tritium plasma liner onto a magnetized deuterium-tritium target

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4737139· OSTI ID:22085918
 [1]
  1. Fusion Technology Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1500 Engineering Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)

Converging plasma jets may be able to reach the regime of high energy density plasmas (HEDP). The successful application of plasma jets to magneto-inertial fusion (MIF) would heat the plasma by fusion products and should increase the plasma energy density. This paper reports the results of using the University of Wisconsin's 1-D Lagrangian, radiation-hydrodynamics, fusion code BUCKY to investigate two MIF converging plasma jet test cases originally analyzed by Samulyak et al.[Physics of Plasmas 17, 092702 (2010)]. In these cases, 15 cm or 5 cm radially thick deuterium-tritium (DT) plasma jets merge at 60 cm from the origin and converge radially onto a DT target magnetized to 2 T and of radius 5 cm. The BUCKY calculations reported here model these cases, starting from the time of initial contact of the jets and target. Compared to the one-temperature Samulyak et al. calculations, the one-temperature BUCKY results show similar behavior, except that the plasma radius remains about twice as long near maximum compression. One-temperature and two-temperature BUCKY results differ, reflecting the sensitivity of the calculations to timing and plasma parameter details, with the two-temperature case giving a more sustained compression.

OSTI ID:
22085918
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 7; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English