Numerical Modeling of Plasma-Liner Formation and Implosion for PLX-{\$}$\backslash $alpha{\$}

ORAL

Abstract

Numerical simulations of spherically imploding plasma liners formed by merging hypersonic plasma jets have been performed using the FronTier and smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) codes in support of the PLX-{\$}$\backslash $alpha{\$} project. The physics includes radiation, Braginskii thermal conductivity and ion viscosity, and tabular EOS (LTE and non-LTE). Solid-angle-averaged and standard deviation of liner ram pressure and Mach number reveal variations in these properties during formation and implosion. Spherical-harmonic mode-number analysis of spherical slices of ram pressure at various radii and times provide a quantitative means to assess the evolution of liner non-uniformity. Simulations of 6 and 7 jets support near-term experiments, and synthetic spectra and line-integrated densities are compared with experimental data.

*Supported by the ARPA-E ALPHA program.

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Authors

  • Jason Cassibry

    • University of Alabama in Huntsville

  • Roman Samulyak

    • Stony Brook University

  • Kevin Schillo

    • University of Alabama in Huntsville

  • Wen Shih

    • Stony Brook University

  • Peter H. Stoltz

    • Tech-X Corp.
    • Tech-X Coporation
    • Tech-X Corporation

  • Kris Beckwith

    • Tech-X Corp.
    • Tech-X Coporation

  • Samuel Langendorf

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos National Lab

  • Scott Hsu

    • LANL
    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos National Lab
    • Los Alamos Natl Lab