Real viscosity effects in inertial confinement fusion target deuterium–tritium micro-implosions
- Research Applications Corporation, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544 (United States)
We report on numerical studies of real viscous effects on the implosion characteristics of imploded DT micro-targets. We use the implicit ePLAS code to perform 2D simulations of spherical and slightly ellipsoidal DT shells on DT gas filled ∼40 μm diameter voids. Before their final implosions the shells have been nearly adiabatically compressed up to 10{sup 2} or 10{sup 3} g/cm{sup 3} densities. While the use of conventional artificial viscosity can lead to high central densities for initially spherical shells, we find that a real physical viscosity from ion-ion collisions can give a high (>20 keV) central temperature but severely reduced central density (<200 g/cm{sup 3}), while the elliptical shells evidence p = 2 distortion of the heated central fuel region. These results suggest that the general use of artificial viscosities in Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) modeling may have lead to overly optimistic yields for current NIF targets and that polar direct drive with more energy for the imploding capsule may be needed for ultimate ICF success.
- OSTI ID:
- 22252066
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 2; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Progress Toward Ignition on the National Ignition Facility
Imaging of High-Energy X-Ray Emission from Cryogenic Thermonuclear Fuel Implosions on the NIF