DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Fuel-shell interface instability growth effects on the performance of room temperature direct-drive implosions

Abstract

Performance degradation in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion implosions is caused by several effects, one of which is Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability growth during the deceleration phase. In room-temperature plastic target implosions, deceleration-phase RT growth is enhanced by the density discontinuity and finite Atwood number at the fuel-shell interface. In this paper, the Atwood number of the interface is systematically varied by altering the ratio of deuterium to tritium (D:T) within the DT gas fill. It is shown that the stability of the interface is best characterized by the effective Atwood number, which is primarily determined by radiation heating of the shell and not by the composition of the fuel. Both simulation and experimental data show that yield performance scales with the fraction of D and T present in the fuel and that the observed inferred ion temperature asymmetry $$(ΔT_i = T_i^{max} - T_i^{min})$$, which indicates the presence of long-wavelength modes, has a small sensitivity to the different D:T ratios.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [2];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics, and Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
  2. Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
OSTI Identifier:
1567842
Report Number(s):
2018-331, 2479, 1519
Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X; 2018-331, 2479, 1519; TRN: US2100262
Grant/Contract Number:  
NA0001944
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physics of Plasmas
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 26; Journal Issue: 8; 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

Miller, S. C., Knauer, J. P., Forrest, C. J., Glebov, V. Yu., Radha, P. B., and Goncharov, V. N. Fuel-shell interface instability growth effects on the performance of room temperature direct-drive implosions. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1063/1.5104338.
Miller, S. C., Knauer, J. P., Forrest, C. J., Glebov, V. Yu., Radha, P. B., & Goncharov, V. N. Fuel-shell interface instability growth effects on the performance of room temperature direct-drive implosions. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5104338
Miller, S. C., Knauer, J. P., Forrest, C. J., Glebov, V. Yu., Radha, P. B., and Goncharov, V. N. Thu . "Fuel-shell interface instability growth effects on the performance of room temperature direct-drive implosions". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5104338. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1567842.
@article{osti_1567842,
title = {Fuel-shell interface instability growth effects on the performance of room temperature direct-drive implosions},
author = {Miller, S. C. and Knauer, J. P. and Forrest, C. J. and Glebov, V. Yu. and Radha, P. B. and Goncharov, V. N.},
abstractNote = {Performance degradation in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion implosions is caused by several effects, one of which is Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability growth during the deceleration phase. In room-temperature plastic target implosions, deceleration-phase RT growth is enhanced by the density discontinuity and finite Atwood number at the fuel-shell interface. In this paper, the Atwood number of the interface is systematically varied by altering the ratio of deuterium to tritium (D:T) within the DT gas fill. It is shown that the stability of the interface is best characterized by the effective Atwood number, which is primarily determined by radiation heating of the shell and not by the composition of the fuel. Both simulation and experimental data show that yield performance scales with the fraction of D and T present in the fuel and that the observed inferred ion temperature asymmetry $(ΔT_i = T_i^{max} - T_i^{min})$, which indicates the presence of long-wavelength modes, has a small sensitivity to the different D:T ratios.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5104338},
journal = {Physics of Plasmas},
number = 8,
volume = 26,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: The fuel-shell interface of room temperature targets during the deceleration phase is classically unstable due to the jump in density. The hydrodynamic profile above is shown during the deceleration phase at the time of peak compression.

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Rayleigh–Taylor instability on the pusher–fuel contact surface of stagnating targets
journal, November 1990

  • Sakagami, H.; Nishihara, K.
  • Physics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics, Vol. 2, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.859395

Rayleigh–Taylor instability in a spherically stagnating system
journal, January 1986

  • Hattori, F.; Takabe, H.; Mima, K.
  • Physics of Fluids, Vol. 29, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.865637

Mechanism of growth reduction of the deceleration-phase ablative Rayleigh-Taylor instability
journal, May 2003


Effect of Tritium-Induced Damage on Plastic Targets from High-Density DT Permeation
journal, November 2017


Deceleration phase of inertial confinement fusion implosions
journal, May 2002

  • Betti, R.; Anderson, K.; Goncharov, V. N.
  • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 9, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1459458

Calibration of a neutron time-of-flight detector with a rapid instrument response function for measurements of bulk fluid motion on OMEGA
journal, October 2018

  • Mannion, O. M.; Glebov, V. Yu.; Forrest, C. J.
  • Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 89, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.5037324

Modeling hydrodynamic instabilities in inertial confinement fusion targets
journal, December 2000

  • Goncharov, V. N.; McKenty, P.; Skupsky, S.
  • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 7, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1321016

Hydrodynamic target response to an induced spatial incoherence‐smoothed laser beam
journal, September 1991

  • Emery, M. H.; Gardner, J. H.; Lehmberg, R. H.
  • Physics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics, Vol. 3, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.859976

Initial performance results of the OMEGA laser system
journal, January 1997


Understanding the effects of laser imprint on plastic-target implosions on OMEGA
journal, October 2016

  • Hu, S. X.; Michel, D. T.; Davis, A. K.
  • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 23, Issue 10, 102701
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4962993

Two-dimensional simulations of plastic-shell, direct-drive implosions on OMEGA
journal, March 2005

  • Radha, P. B.; Goncharov, V. N.; Collins, T. J. B.
  • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 12, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1857530

Power Laws and Similarity of Rayleigh-Taylor and Richtmyer-Meshkov Mixing Fronts at All Density Ratios
journal, January 1995


The production spectrum in fusion plasmas
journal, February 2011


Strong Coupling and Degeneracy Effects in Inertial Confinement Fusion Implosions
journal, June 2010


The effect of turbulent kinetic energy on inferred ion temperature from neutron spectra
journal, July 2014


A multiscale analysis of the hotspot dynamics during the deceleration phase of inertial confinement capsules
journal, January 2005

  • Garnier, Josselin; Cherfils, Catherine
  • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 12, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1825389

Direct-drive inertial confinement fusion: A review
journal, November 2015

  • Craxton, R. S.; Anderson, K. S.; Boehly, T. R.
  • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4934714

Multidimensional analysis of direct-drive, plastic-shell implosions on OMEGA
journal, May 2005

  • Radha, P. B.; Collins, T. J. B.; Delettrez, J. A.
  • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 12, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1882333

Measurement and Simulation of Laser Imprinting and Consequent Rayleigh-Taylor Growth
journal, March 1996


Detailed high-resolution three-dimensional simulations of OMEGA separated reactants inertial confinement fusion experiments
journal, July 2016

  • Haines, Brian M.; Grim, Gary P.; Fincke, James R.
  • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 23, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4959117

Analysis of the neutron time-of-flight spectra from inertial confinement fusion experiments
journal, November 2015

  • Hatarik, R.; Sayre, D. B.; Caggiano, J. A.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 118, Issue 18
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4935455

The instability of liquid surfaces when accelerated in a direction perpendicular to their planes. I
journal, March 1950

  • Taylor, Geoffrey Ingram
  • Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Vol. 201, Issue 1065, p. 192-196
  • DOI: 10.1098/rspa.1950.0052

Direct-drive laser fusion: Status and prospects
journal, May 1998

  • Bodner, Stephen E.; Colombant, Denis G.; Gardner, John H.
  • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 5, Issue 5, p. 1901-1918
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.872861

A model of laser imprinting
journal, May 2000

  • Goncharov, V. N.; Skupsky, S.; Boehly, T. R.
  • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 7, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.874028

Three-dimensional modeling of the neutron spectrum to infer plasma conditions in cryogenic inertial confinement fusion implosions
journal, April 2018

  • Weilacher, F.; Radha, P. B.; Forrest, C.
  • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.5016856

Three-dimensional modeling of direct-drive cryogenic implosions on OMEGA
journal, May 2016

  • Igumenshchev, I. V.; Goncharov, V. N.; Marshall, F. J.
  • Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 23, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4948418

Indirect drive ignition at the National Ignition Facility
journal, October 2016


Fusion neutron energies and spectra
journal, July 1973