Title: Experimental characterization of a section of a spherically imploding plasma liner formed by merging hypersonic plasma jets

Abstract

In this work, we report experimental results on merging of hypersonic plasma jets, which is the fundamental building block for forming spherically imploding plasma liners as a potential standoff compression driver for magneto-inertial fusion. Jets are formed and launched by contoured-gap coaxial plasma guns mounted at the six vertices and the center of a hexagon covering approximately one-tenth of the surface area of a 9-ft-diameter spherical chamber. First, from experiments with two and three merging jets of four different species (N, Ar, Kr, and Xe), we show that (1) density spatial non-uniformities can be large (with electron-density jumps ranging from 2.9 for N to 6.6 for Xe) when shocks form upon jet merging, but smaller (density jumps <2) when shocks do not form; (2) jet impurities (20% Ti in these experiments) can increase the level of density spatial non-uniformity by increasing the collisionality of jet merging, leading to shock formation rather than potentially more desirable shockless jet merging; and (3) the liner Mach number can remain high (≳10), as required for plasma liners to be an effective compression driver. Secondly, from experiments with six and seven merging jets using Ar, we present results with improved jet-to-jet mass balance of <2%more » across jets, including (1) evidence of substantially increased balance in the jet merging and symmetry of the liner structure and (2) potentially favorable changes in the jet-merging morphology with the addition of the seventh jet. Ultimately, for both experiments, we present comparisons between experimental and synthetic data from three-dimensional hydrodynamic codes.« less

Authors:

Yates, K. C.  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Yates, K. C."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-8820-0909"

Langendorf, S. J.  ^[2];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Langendorf, S. J."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-7757-5879"

Hsu, S. C.  ^[2];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Hsu, S. C."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-6737-4934"

Dunn, J. P. ^[2]; Brockington, S. ^[3]; Case, A. ^[3]; Cruz, E. ^[3]; Witherspoon, F. D. ^[3]; Thio, Y. F. ^[4]; Cassibry, J. T.  ^[5];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Cassibry, J. T."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-7920-7888"

Schillo, K. ^[5]; Gilmore, M. ^[6]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
3. HyperV Technologies Corp., Chantilly, VA (United States); HyperJet Fusion Corp., Chantilly, VA (United States)
4. HyperJet Fusion Corp., Chantilly, VA (United States)
5. Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (United States). Propulsion Research Center
6. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Publication Date:

Thu Jun 18 00:00:00 EDT 2020

Research Org.:

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

OSTI Identifier:

1650623

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1633830

Report Number(s):

LA-UR-19-28713
Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X; TRN: US2202732

Grant/Contract Number:  

89233218CNA000001; AR0000566; AC52-06NA25396

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Physics of Plasmas

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 27; 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; Plasma sources; gas jet; plasma heating; hydrodynamic codes; fusion experiments; fluid mechanics; plasma confinement; interferometry; fusion energy; Doppler spectroscopy