Tendency of spherically imploding plasma liners formed by merging plasma jets to evolve toward spherical symmetry
- Propulsion Research Center, Technology Hall S-226, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama 35899 (United States)
- Physics Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
- HyperV Technologies Corp., Chantilly, Virginia 20151 (United States)
- University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 (United States)
We have performed three-dimensional (3D) simulations using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) in order to study the effects of discrete plasma jets on the processes of plasma liner formation, implosion on vacuum, and expansion. It was found that the pressure histories of the inner portion of the liner from 3D SPH simulations with a uniform liner and with 30 discrete plasma jets were qualitatively and quantitatively similar from peak compression through the complete stagnation of the liner. The 3D simulations with a uniform liner were first benchmarked against results from one-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic simulations [T. J. Awe et al., Phys. Plasmas 18, 072705 (2011)]. Two-dimensional plots of the pressure field show that the discrete jet SPH case evolves towards a profile that is almost indistinguishable from the SPH case with a uniform liner, thus indicating that non-uniformities due to discrete jets are smeared out by late stages of the implosion. The processes of plasma liner formation and implosion on vacuum were shown to be robust against Rayleigh-Taylor instability growth. Finally, interparticle mixing for a liner imploding on vacuum was investigated. The mixing rate was found to be very small until after the peak compression for the 30 jet simulations.
- OSTI ID:
- 22072343
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 5; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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