Coupled EM-PIC/Radiation Transport Simulations of HERMES Courtyard Experiments

Technical Report · Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 EDT 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1481502· OSTI ID:1481502

Pointon, Timothy D. ^[1]; Pointon, Timothy D. ^[1]; Cartwright, Keith ^[1]; Renk, Timothy Jerome ^[1]; Yee, Benjamin Tong ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

A suite of coupled computational models for simulating the radiation, plasma, and electromagnetic (EM) environment in the High-Energy Radiation Megavolt Electron Source (HERMES) courtyard has been developed. In principle, this provides a predictive forward-simulation capability based solely on measured upstream anode and cathode current waveforms in the Magnetically Insulated Transmission Line (MITL). First, 2D R-Z ElectroMagnetic Particle-in-Cell (EM-PIC) simulations model the MITL and diode to compute a history of all electrons incident on the converter. Next, radiation transport simulations use these electrons as a source to compute the time-dependent dose rate and volumetric electron production in the courtyard. Finally, the radiation transport output is used as sources for EM-PIC simulations of the courtyard to com- pute electromagnetic responses. This suite has been applied to the November 2016 trials, shots 10268-10313. Modeling and experiment differ in significant ways. This is just the first iteration of a long process to improve the agreement, as outlined in the summary.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000; NA0003525
• OSTI ID: 1481502
• Report Number(s): SAND-2018-12578; 668717
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English