National Ignition Facility final optics assembly thermal effects of maintenance operations

Technical Report · Wed Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/663188· OSTI ID:663188

Parietti, L; Martin, R A

The National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world`s most powerful laser system, is being built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to study inertial fusion and high-energy-density science. This billion-dollar facility consists of 192 beams focusing 1.8 MJ on a fusion target. The Final Optics Assembly (FOA), the last mechanical apparatus before the target chamber, converts the light from an incoming frequency of 1 {omega} to ia target-ready 3 {omega}, and focuses the laser beam. The performance of the frequency conversion crystals is very sensitive to temperature changes; crystal temperature must be maintained within a 0.1 C of a nominal temperature prior to a laser shot. Maximizing system availability requires minimizing thermal recovery times after thermal disturbances occurring in both normal and maintenance operations. To guide the design, it is important to have estimates of those recovery times. This report presents Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) design calculations to evaluate thermal effects of maintenance operations.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 663188
• Report Number(s): LA--13435-MS; ON: DE98006024
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
FREQUENCY CONVERTERS
LASER RADIATION
MAINTENANCE
OPTICAL SYSTEMS
TEMPERATURE CONTROL
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
THEORETICAL DATA
TIME DEPENDENCE
US NATIONAL IGNITION FACILITY