One-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic scaling studies of imploding spherical plasma liners
- Physics Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
- Propulsion Research Center, Technology Hall S-226, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama 35899 (United States)
One-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic simulations are performed to develop insight into the scaling of stagnation pressure with initial conditions of an imploding spherical plasma shell or ''liner.'' Simulations reveal the evolution of high-Mach-number (M), annular, spherical plasma flows during convergence, stagnation, shock formation, and disassembly, and indicate that cm- and {mu}s-scale plasmas with peak pressures near 1 Mbar can be generated by liners with initial kinetic energy of several hundred kilo-joules. It is shown that radiation transport and thermal conduction must be included to avoid non-physical plasma temperatures at the origin which artificially limit liner convergence and, thus, the peak stagnation pressure. Scalings of the stagnated plasma lifetime ({tau}{sub stag}) and average stagnation pressure (P{sub stag}, the pressure at the origin, averaged over {tau}{sub stag}) are determined by evaluating a wide range of liner initial conditions. For high-M flows, {tau}{sub stag} {approx} {Delta}R/v{sub 0}, where {Delta}R and v{sub 0} are the initial liner thickness and velocity, respectively. Furthermore, for argon liners, P{sub stag} scales approximately as v{sub 0}{sup 15/4} over a wide range of initial densities (n{sub 0}) and as n{sub 0}{sup 1/2} over a wide range of v{sub 0}. The approximate scaling P{sub stag} {approx} M{sup 3/2} is also found for a wide range of liner-plasma initial conditions.
- OSTI ID:
- 22046890
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 7; Other Information: (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
APPROXIMATIONS
ARGON
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
ION TEMPERATURE
MACH NUMBER
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
PLASMA
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA JETS
PLASMA PRESSURE
PLASMA PRODUCTION
PLASMA SIMULATION
RADIANT HEAT TRANSFER
RADIATION TRANSPORT
SHOCK WAVES
SPHERICAL CONFIGURATION
THERMAL CONDUCTION