Hohlraum Designs for High Velocity Implosions on NIF
In this paper, we compare experimental shock and capsule trajectories to design calculations using the radiation-hydrodynamics code HYDRA. The measured trajectories from surrogate ignition targets are consistent with reducing the x-ray flux on the capsule by about 85%. A new method of extracting the radiation temperature as seen by the capsule from x-ray intensity and image data shows that about half of the apparent 15% flux deficit in the data with respect to the simulations can be explained by HYDRA overestimating the x-ray flux on the capsule. The National Ignition Campaign (NIC) point-design target is designed to reach a peak fuel-layer velocity of 370 km/s by ablating 90% of its plastic (CH) ablator. The 192-beam National Ignition Facility laser drives a gold hohlraum to a radiation temperature (T{sub RAD}) of 300 eV with a 20 ns-long, 420 TW, 1.3 MJ laser pulse. The hohlraum x-rays couple to the CH ablator in order to apply the required pressure to the outside of the capsule. In this paper, we compare experimental measurements of the hohlraum T{sub RAD} and the implosion trajectory with design calculations using the code hydra. The measured radial positions of the leading shock wave and the unablated shell are consistent with simulations in which the x-ray flux on the capsule is artificially reduced by 85%. We describe a new method of inferring the T{sub RAD} seen by the capsule from time-dependent x-ray intensity data and static x-ray images. This analysis shows that hydra overestimates the x-ray flux incident on the capsule by {approx}8%.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 1034520
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-CONF-509371
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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