Constraining Multiphysics codes from ambient to warm dense matter using new radiation driven expansion data

In order to ensure radiation hydrodynamic simulations are predictive, codes must be benchmarked against well characterized experimental data, preferably in the regime future experiments will performed.  Alegra is a multiphysics code used to design many different experiments on Sandia’s Z machine.  Data from a new platform on Z where the time-dependent expansion of an x-ray heated, tamped foil is measured via x-ray radiography is used to constrain Alegra’s IMC radiation hydrodynamics capability from solid, ambient conditions to the warm dense matter regime.