Experimental characterization of a section of a spherically imploding plasma liner formed by merging hypersonic plasma jets

Yates, K. C.; Langendorf, S. J.; Hsu, S. C.; Dunn, J. P.; Brockington, S.; Case, A.; Cruz, E.; Witherspoon, F. D.; Thio, Y. F.; Cassibry, J. T.; Schillo, K.; Gilmore, M.

doi:10.1063/1.5126855

Experimental characterization of a section of a spherically imploding plasma liner formed by merging hypersonic plasma jets

Journal Article · Thu Jun 18 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5126855· OSTI ID:1650623

^[1]; ^[2]; ^[2]; Dunn, J. P. ^[2]; Brockington, S. ^[3]; Case, A. ^[3]; Cruz, E. ^[3]; Witherspoon, F. D. ^[3]; Thio, Y. F. ^[4]; ^[5]; Schillo, K. ^[5]; Gilmore, M. ^[6]

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
HyperV Technologies Corp., Chantilly, VA (United States); HyperJet Fusion Corp., Chantilly, VA (United States)
HyperJet Fusion Corp., Chantilly, VA (United States)
Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (United States). Propulsion Research Center
Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)

In this work, we report experimental results on merging of hypersonic plasma jets, which is the fundamental building block for forming spherically imploding plasma liners as a potential standoff compression driver for magneto-inertial fusion. Jets are formed and launched by contoured-gap coaxial plasma guns mounted at the six vertices and the center of a hexagon covering approximately one-tenth of the surface area of a 9-ft-diameter spherical chamber. First, from experiments with two and three merging jets of four different species (N, Ar, Kr, and Xe), we show that (1) density spatial non-uniformities can be large (with electron-density jumps ranging from 2.9 for N to 6.6 for Xe) when shocks form upon jet merging, but smaller (density jumps <2) when shocks do not form; (2) jet impurities (20% Ti in these experiments) can increase the level of density spatial non-uniformity by increasing the collisionality of jet merging, leading to shock formation rather than potentially more desirable shockless jet merging; and (3) the liner Mach number can remain high (≳10), as required for plasma liners to be an effective compression driver. Secondly, from experiments with six and seven merging jets using Ar, we present results with improved jet-to-jet mass balance of <2% across jets, including (1) evidence of substantially increased balance in the jet merging and symmetry of the liner structure and (2) potentially favorable changes in the jet-merging morphology with the addition of the seventh jet. Ultimately, for both experiments, we present comparisons between experimental and synthetic data from three-dimensional hydrodynamic codes.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001; AR0000566; AC52-06NA25396

OSTI ID:: 1650623

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1633830

Report Number(s):: LA-UR--19-28713

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 27; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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