An investigation of shock formation vs shock mitigation of colliding plasma jets
Here, this work studies the interaction between colliding plasma jets to understand regimes in which jet merging results in shock formation vs regimes in which the shock formation is mitigated due to the collisionless interpenetration of the jets. A kinetic model is required for this study because fluid models will always produce a shock upon the collision of plasma jets. The continuum-kinetic, Vlasov–Maxwell–Dougherty model with one velocity dimension is used to accurately capture shock heating, along with a novel coupling with a moment equation to evolve perpendicular temperature for computational efficiency. As a result, this relatively inexpensive simulation can be used for detailed scans of the parameter space toward predictions of shocked vs shock-mitigated regimes, which is of interest for several fusion concepts such as plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion, high-energy-density plasmas, astrophysical phenomena, and other laboratory plasmas. The initial results obtained using this approach are in agreement with the preliminary outcomes of the plasma liner experiment.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- 89233218CNA000001; AR0001263
- OSTI ID:
- 1995166
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR--24-23721
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 30; ISSN 1070-664X
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Particle-in-cell modeling of plasma jet merging in the large-Hall-parameter regime
Experimental study of ion heating in obliquely merging hypersonic plasma jets