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Title: Coupling of sausage, kink, and magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities in a cylindrical liner

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4915520· OSTI ID:22408218
; ;  [1]; ; ;  [2]
  1. Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2104 (United States)
  2. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185 (United States)

This paper analyzes the coupling of magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor (MRT), sausage, and kink modes in an imploding cylindrical liner, using ideal MHD. A uniform axial magnetic field of arbitrary value is included in each region: liner, its interior, and its exterior. The dispersion relation is solved exactly, for arbitrary radial acceleration (-g), axial wavenumber (k), azimuthal mode number (m), liner aspect ratio, and equilibrium quantities in each region. For small k, a positive g (inward radial acceleration in the lab frame) tends to stabilize the sausage mode, but destabilize the kink mode. For large k, a positive g destabilizes both the kink and sausage mode. Using the 1D-HYDRA simulation results for an equilibrium model that includes a pre-existing axial magnetic field and a preheated fuel, we identify several stages of MRT-sausage-kink mode evolution. We find that the m = 1 kink-MRT mode has a higher growth rate at the initial stage and stagnation stage of the implosion, and that the m = 0 sausage-MRT mode dominates at the main part of implosion. This analysis also sheds light on a puzzling feature in Harris' classic paper of MRT [E. G. Harris, Phys. Fluids 5, 1057 (1962)]. An attempt is made to interpret the persistence of the observed helical structures [Awe et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 235005 (2013)] in terms of non-axisymmetric eigenmode.

OSTI ID:
22408218
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 3; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English