A “polar contact” tent for reduced perturbation and improved performance of NIF ignition capsules

Hammel, B. A.; Weber, C. R.; Stadermann, M.; Alday, C. L.; Aracne-Ruddle, C.; Bigelow, J. R.; Clark, D. S.; Cortez, J. P.; Diaz, S.; Döppner, T.; Felker, S.; Field, J. E.; Haan, S. W.; Havre, M. O.; Heinbockel, C.; Hinkel, D. E.; Hsing, W. W.; Johnson, S. A.; Nikroo, A.; Pickworth, L. A.; Ralph, J. E.; Robey, H. F.; Smalyuk, V. A.

doi:10.1063/1.5032121

A “polar contact” tent for reduced perturbation and improved performance of NIF ignition capsules

Journal Article · Thu Aug 23 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5032121· OSTI ID:1765299

Hammel, B. A. ^[1]; Weber, C. R. ^[1]; Stadermann, M. ^[1]; Alday, C. L. ^[2]; Aracne-Ruddle, C. ^[1]; Bigelow, J. R. ^[1]; ^[1]; Cortez, J. P. ^[2]; Diaz, S. ^[2]; Döppner, T. ^[1]; Felker, S. ^[1]; Field, J. E. ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[2]; ^[1]; Hinkel, D. E. ^[1]; Hsing, W. W. ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1] more »

Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)

In indirectly driven Inertial Confinement Fusion implosions conducted on the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the imploding capsule is supported in a laser-heated radiation enclosure (called a “hohlraum”) by a pair of very thin (~15–45 nm) plastic films (referred to as a “tent”). Even though the thickness of these tents is a small fraction of that of the spherical capsule ablator (~165 μm), both numerical simulations as well as experiments indicate that this capsule support mechanism results in a large areal density (ρR) perturbation on the capsule surface at the contact point where the tent departs from the capsule. As a result, during deceleration of the deuterium-tritium (DT) fuel layer, a jet of the dense ablator material penetrates and cools the fuel hot spot, significantly degrading the neutron yield (resulting in only ~10%–20% of the unperturbed 1-D yield). In this article, we present a hypothesis and supporting design simulations of a new “polar contact” tent support system, which reduces the contact area between the tent and the capsule and results in a significant improvement in the capsule performance. Simulations predict a ~70% increase in neutron yield over that for an implosion with a traditional tent support. Overall, an initial demonstration experiment was conducted on the NIF and produced highest ever recorded primary DT neutron yield among all layered DT implosions with plastic ablators on the NIF, though more experiments are needed to comprehensively study the effect of the polar tent on implosion performance.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-07NA27344; NA0001808

OSTI ID:: 1765299

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1466077

Report Number(s):: LLNL-JRNL--743472; 898422

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 25; ISSN 1070-664X

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

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited By (5)

Stimulated backscatter of laser light from BigFoot hohlraums on the National Ignition Facility Berger, R. L.; Thomas, C. A.; Baker, K. L. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 26, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5079234	journal	January 2019
Robustness to hydrodynamic instabilities in indirectly driven layered capsule implosions Haines, Brian M.; Olson, R. E.; Sweet, W. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 26, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5080262	journal	January 2019
Three-dimensional modeling and hydrodynamic scaling of National Ignition Facility implosions Clark, D. S.; Weber, C. R.; Milovich, J. L. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 26, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5091449	journal	May 2019
Review of hydrodynamic instability experiments in inertially confined fusion implosions on National Ignition Facility Smalyuk, V. A.; Weber, C. R.; Landen, O. L. Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 62, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6587/ab49f4	journal	October 2019
Progress of indirect drive inertial confinement fusion in the United States Kline, J. L.; Batha, S. H.; Benedetti, L. R. Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 59, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ab1ecf	journal	July 2019

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