Kinetic simulations of sheared flow stabilization in high-temperature Z-pinch plasmas
Abstract
We present that the first fully kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of sheared flow stabilized Z-pinch plasmas show the suppression of the sausage instability by shear, ∂rvz ≠ 0, with flow Mach numbers ≲1, consistent with experimental observations. Experimental investigations of sheared-flow stabilized Z-pinches demonstrated stability for 10 s of microseconds, over 1000 Alfvén radial transit times, in quasi steady-state plasmas that are an intermediate between conventional inertial and magnetic confinement systems. The observed stability coincides with the presence of radial shear in axial flow profiles with peak speeds less than Mach 1, and experiments are underway to validate scaling this design to fusion conditions. The experimentally observed stability agrees with models of m = 1 kink mode suppression by sheared flows, but existing models of the m = 0 sausage mode underestimate the efficacy of sheared flow stabilization. These models rely on fluid approximations and find that stabilization requires flows ranging from Mach 1.7 to 4.3, and in some cases, stabilization is not reproduced in the models. This is faster than the measured flows in long-lived plasmas and would necessitate substantial energy convection out of the Z-pinch and the need to drive and sustain supersonic flows in future devices. Themore »
- Authors:
-
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Voss Scientific, LLC, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1544963
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1526092
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-JRNL-767536
Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X; 957144
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344; AR0000571
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physics of Plasmas
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 26; Journal Issue: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Citation Formats
Tummel, K., Higginson, D. P., Link, A. J., Schmidt, A. E. W., Offermann, D. T., Welch, D. R., Clark, R. E., Shumlak, U., Nelson, B. A., Golingo, R. P., and McLean, H. S. Kinetic simulations of sheared flow stabilization in high-temperature Z-pinch plasmas. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1063/1.5092241.
Tummel, K., Higginson, D. P., Link, A. J., Schmidt, A. E. W., Offermann, D. T., Welch, D. R., Clark, R. E., Shumlak, U., Nelson, B. A., Golingo, R. P., & McLean, H. S. Kinetic simulations of sheared flow stabilization in high-temperature Z-pinch plasmas. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5092241
Tummel, K., Higginson, D. P., Link, A. J., Schmidt, A. E. W., Offermann, D. T., Welch, D. R., Clark, R. E., Shumlak, U., Nelson, B. A., Golingo, R. P., and McLean, H. S. Thu .
"Kinetic simulations of sheared flow stabilization in high-temperature Z-pinch plasmas". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5092241. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1544963.
@article{osti_1544963,
title = {Kinetic simulations of sheared flow stabilization in high-temperature Z-pinch plasmas},
author = {Tummel, K. and Higginson, D. P. and Link, A. J. and Schmidt, A. E. W. and Offermann, D. T. and Welch, D. R. and Clark, R. E. and Shumlak, U. and Nelson, B. A. and Golingo, R. P. and McLean, H. S.},
abstractNote = {We present that the first fully kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of sheared flow stabilized Z-pinch plasmas show the suppression of the sausage instability by shear, ∂rvz ≠ 0, with flow Mach numbers ≲1, consistent with experimental observations. Experimental investigations of sheared-flow stabilized Z-pinches demonstrated stability for 10 s of microseconds, over 1000 Alfvén radial transit times, in quasi steady-state plasmas that are an intermediate between conventional inertial and magnetic confinement systems. The observed stability coincides with the presence of radial shear in axial flow profiles with peak speeds less than Mach 1, and experiments are underway to validate scaling this design to fusion conditions. The experimentally observed stability agrees with models of m = 1 kink mode suppression by sheared flows, but existing models of the m = 0 sausage mode underestimate the efficacy of sheared flow stabilization. These models rely on fluid approximations and find that stabilization requires flows ranging from Mach 1.7 to 4.3, and in some cases, stabilization is not reproduced in the models. This is faster than the measured flows in long-lived plasmas and would necessitate substantial energy convection out of the Z-pinch and the need to drive and sustain supersonic flows in future devices. The MHD models typically used in the literature are invalid in the high-temperature, high-current environments desirable for many Z-pinch applications, and they ignore large Larmor radius effects and viscous dissipation which are known to impact Z-pinch stability. PIC simulations can capture all these effects as well as kinetic instabilities that could influence the performance of high-temperature sheared flow stabilized Z-pinch plasmas. The PIC simulations presented here show the suppression and damping of m = 0 modes by sheared flows ∂rvz = 0.75vA/r0 with flow Mach numbers ≲1. Lastlyl, equivalent stability occurs under plasma conditions ranging from the limits of present-day experimental capabilities to the projected conditions of a sheared flow stabilized Z-pinch reactor.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5092241},
journal = {Physics of Plasmas},
number = 6,
volume = 26,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jun 13 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Thu Jun 13 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
Web of Science
Works referenced in this record:
Effect of polarity on beam and plasma target formation in a dense plasma focus
journal, April 2019
- Jiang, S.; Higginson, D. P.; Link, A.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 26, Issue 4
Pulsed-power-driven cylindrical liner implosions of laser preheated fuel magnetized with an axial field
journal, May 2010
- Slutz, S. A.; Herrmann, M. C.; Vesey, R. A.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 17, Issue 5
Magneto-Inertial Fusion
journal, November 2015
- Wurden, G. A.; Hsu, S. C.; Intrator, T. P.
- Journal of Fusion Energy, Vol. 35, Issue 1
Spherically Imploding Plasma Liners as a Standoff Driver for Magnetoinertial Fusion
journal, May 2012
- Hsu, S. C.; Awe, T. J.; Brockington, S.
- IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. 40, Issue 5
A review of the dense Z -pinch
journal, June 2011
- Haines, M. G.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 53, Issue 9
Kinetic effects on neutron generation in moderately collisional interpenetrating plasma flows
journal, January 2019
- Higginson, D. P.; Ross, J. S.; Ryutov, D. D.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 26, Issue 1
Fully Kinetic Simulations of Dense Plasma Focus -Pinch Devices
journal, November 2012
- Schmidt, A.; Tang, V.; Welch, D.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 20
Hybrid-PIC modeling of laser-plasma interactions and hot electron generation in gold hohlraum walls
journal, June 2017
- Thoma, C.; Welch, D. R.; Clark, R. E.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 24, Issue 6
Linear analysis of sheared flow stabilization of global magnetohydrodynamic instabilities based on the Hall fluid model
journal, March 2002
- Sotnikov, V. I.; Paraschiv, I.; Makhin, V.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 9, Issue 3
Magnetically Self-Focussing Streams
journal, June 1934
- Bennett, Willard H.
- Physical Review, Vol. 45, Issue 12
Ideal magnetohydrodynamic linear instabilities in the Z-pinch
journal, March 1988
- Coppins, M.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 30, Issue 3
Linear stability of the collisionless, large Larmor radius Z-pinch
journal, July 1997
- Russell, P. G. F.; Arber, T. D.; Coppins, M.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 4, Issue 7
A second-order implicit particle mover with adjustable damping
journal, October 1990
- Friedman, Alex
- Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 90, Issue 2
Kinetic stability of the finite electron temperature Z -pinch
journal, April 1997
- Scheffel, J.; Arber, T. D.; Coppins, M.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 39, Issue 4
The Sheared-Flow Stabilized Z-Pinch
journal, January 2012
- Shumlak, U.; Chadney, J.; Golingo, R. P.
- Fusion Science and Technology, Vol. 61, Issue 1T
Large Larmor radius stability of the z pinch
journal, April 1994
- Arber, T. D.; Coppins, M.; Scheffel, J.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 72, Issue 15
Characterization and focusing of light ion beams generated by ultra-intensely irradiated thin foils at the kilojoule scale
journal, May 2011
- Offermann, D. T.; Flippo, K. A.; Cobble, J.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 5
Species separation and kinetic effects in collisional plasma shocks
journal, May 2014
- Bellei, C.; Rinderknecht, H.; Zylstra, A.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 5
Theory of cumulative small-angle collisions in plasmas
journal, April 1997
- Nanbu, K.
- Physical Review E, Vol. 55, Issue 4
Effects of various axial flow profiles on the magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability in Z-pinch implosions
journal, June 2006
- Zhang, Y.; Ding, N.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 13, Issue 6
Equilibrium, flow shear and stability measurements in the Z-pinch
journal, July 2009
- Shumlak, U.; Adams, C. S.; Blakely, J. M.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 49, Issue 7
Design of magnetized liner inertial fusion experiments using the Z facility
journal, July 2014
- Sefkow, A. B.; Slutz, S. A.; Koning, J. M.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 7
Sheared Flow Stabilization of the Kink Mode in Pinches
journal, October 1995
- Shumlak, U.; Hartman, C. W.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 75, Issue 18
Transition from Collisional to Collisionless Regimes in Interpenetrating Plasma Flows on the National Ignition Facility
journal, May 2017
- Ross, J. S.; Higginson, D. P.; Ryutov, D.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 118, Issue 18
Transition from Beam-Target to Thermonuclear Fusion in High-Current Deuterium -Pinch Simulations
journal, May 2016
- Offermann, Dustin T.; Welch, Dale R.; Rose, Dave V.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 116, Issue 19
Increasing plasma parameters using sheared flow stabilization of a Z-pinch
journal, May 2017
- Shumlak, U.; Nelson, B. A.; Claveau, E. L.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 24, Issue 5
Evidence of Stabilization in the -Pinch
journal, October 2001
- Shumlak, U.; Golingo, R. P.; Nelson, B. A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 87, Issue 20
Formation of a sheared flow Z pinch
journal, June 2005
- Golingo, R. P.; Shumlak, U.; Nelson, B. A.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 12, Issue 6
The effect of sheared axial flow on the linear stability of the Z‐pinch
journal, February 1996
- Arber, T. D.; Howell, D. F.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 3, Issue 2
A pairwise nuclear fusion algorithm for weighted particle-in-cell plasma simulations
journal, July 2019
- Higginson, Drew Pitney; Link, Anthony; Schmidt, Andrea
- Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 388
Sustained Neutron Production from a Sheared-Flow Stabilized Pinch
journal, April 2019
- Zhang, Y.; Shumlak, U.; Nelson, B. A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 122, Issue 13
A Grid-Based Coulomb Collision Model for PIC Codes
journal, January 1996
- Jones, Michael E.; Lemons, Don S.; Mason, Rodney J.
- Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 1
Measurement of Instability Growth in a Magnetized Pinch in the Finite-Larmor-Radius Regime
journal, September 2001
- Davies, H. M.; Dangor, A. E.; Coppins, M.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 87, Issue 14
Linear and nonlinear development of m=0 instability in a diffuse Bennett Z-pinch equilibrium with sheared axial flow
journal, July 2010
- Paraschiv, I.; Bauer, B. S.; Lindemuth, I. R.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 17, Issue 7
Development of global magnetohydrodynamic instabilities in Z-pinch plasmas in the presence of nonideal effects
journal, May 2004
- Sotnikov, V. I.; Bauer, B. S.; Leboeuf, J. N.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 11, Issue 5
Suppression of turbulence and transport by sheared flow
journal, January 2000
- Terry, P. W.
- Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 72, Issue 1
Hydromagnetic Instabilities of an Ideally Conducting Fluid
journal, January 1957
- Tayler, R. J.
- Proceedings of the Physical Society. Section B, Vol. 70, Issue 1
Kinetic physics in ICF: present understanding and future directions
journal, April 2018
- Rinderknecht, Hans G.; Amendt, P. A.; Wilks, S. C.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 60, Issue 6
Stabilization of Z pinch by velocity shear
journal, November 2000
- DeSouza-Machado, S.; Hassam, A. B.; Sina, Ramin
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 7, Issue 11
Evidence of Stabilization in the Z-Pinch
text, January 2001
- Den Hartog, D. J.; Golingo, R. P.; Nelson, B. A.
- The American Physical Society
Measurement of Instability Growth in a Magnetized Z Pinch in the Finite-Larmor-Radius Regime
text, January 2001
- Coppins, M.; Dangor, A. E.; Davies, H. M.
- The American Physical Society
Works referencing / citing this record:
Retrospective of the ARPA-E ALPHA Fusion Program
journal, October 2019
- Nehl, C. L.; Umstattd, R. J.; Regan, W. R.
- Journal of Fusion Energy, Vol. 38, Issue 5-6
Gyrokinetic simulations of m = 0 mode in sheared flow Z-pinch plasmas
journal, June 2019
- Geyko, V. I.; Dorf, M.; Angus, J. R.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 26, Issue 6
Retrospective of the ARPA-E ALPHA fusion program
text, January 2019
- Nehl, C. L.; Umstattd, R. J.; Regan, W. R.
- arXiv