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Title: Analysis of NIF experiments with the minimal energy implosion model

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4928093· OSTI ID:1459807

Here, we apply a recently developed analytical model of implosion and thermonuclear burn to fusion capsule experiments performed at the National Ignition Facility that used low-foot and high-foot laser pulse formats. Our theoretical predictions are consistent with the experimental data. Our studies, together with neutron image analysis, reveal that the adiabats of the cold fuel in both low-foot and high-foot experiments are similar. That is, the cold deuterium-tritium shells in those experiments are all in a high adiabat state at the time of peak implosion velocity. The major difference between low-foot and high-foot capsule experiments is the growth of the shock-induced instabilities developed at the material interfaces which lead to fuel mixing with ablator material. Furthermore, we have compared the NIF capsules performance with the ignition criteria and analyzed the alpha particle heating in the NIF experiments. Our analysis shows that alpha heating was appreciable only in the high-foot experiments.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396; W-7405-ENG-36
OSTI ID:
1459807
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1229603
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-15-23802; PHPAEN; TRN: US1901802
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 8; ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 17 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (5)

Effects of preheat and mix on the fuel adiabat of an imploding capsule journal December 2016
Direct measurement of the inertial confinement time in a magnetically driven implosion journal April 2017
Optimizing neutron imaging line of sight locations for maximizing sampling of the cold fuel density in inertial confinement fusion implosions at the National Ignition Facility journal October 2018
Analysis of NIF scaling using physics informed machine learning journal January 2020
Ignition and pusher adiabat journal June 2018