Two Dimensional Simulations of Plastic-Shell, Direct-Drive Implosions on OMEGA

Journal Article · Mon Sep 27 04:00:00 EDT 2004 · Physics of Plasmas

OSTI ID:936449

Radha, P B; Goncharov, V N; Collins, T B; Delettrez, J A; Elbaz, Y; Glebov, V Y; Keck, R L; Keller, D E; Knauer, J P; Marozas, J A; Marshall, F J; McKenty, P W; Meyerhofer, D D; Regan, S P; Sangster, T C; Shvarts, D; Skupsky, S; Srebro, Y; Town, R J; Stoeckl, C

Multidimensional hydrodynamic properties of high-adiabat direct-drive plastic-shell implosions on the OMEGA laser system [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] are investigated using the multidimensional hydrodynamic code, DRACO. Multimode simulations including the effects of nonuniform illumination and target roughness indicate that shell stability during the acceleration phase plays a critical role in determining target performance. For thick shells that remain integral during the acceleration phase, target yields are significantly reduced by the combination of the long-wavelength ({ell} < 10) modes due to surface roughness and beam imbalance and the intermediate modes (20 {le} {ell} {le} 50) due to single-beam nonuniformities. The neutron-production rate for these thick shells truncates relative to one-dimensional (1-D) predictions. The yield degradation in the thin shells is mainly due to shell breakup at short wavelengths ({lambda} {approx} {Delta}, where {Delta} is the in-flight shell thickness). The neutron-rate curves for the thinner shells have significantly lower amplitudes and a fall-off that is less steep than 1-D rates. DRACO simulation results are consistent with experimental observations.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 936449
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JRNL-206954
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Vol. 12; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ACCELERATION
AMPLITUDES
HYDRODYNAMICS
ILLUMINANCE
IMPLOSIONS
LASERS
PERFORMANCE
ROUGHNESS
SIMULATION
STABILITY
TARGETS
THICKNESS
WAVELENGTHS