Simulations of magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability growth in liner implosions at the Z facility
ORAL
Abstract
The magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability (MRTI) is a common feature of Z-pinch liner implosions, since the magnetic pressure driving the implosion also drives hydrodynamic instability growth at the outer liner surface. In the magnetized liner induced fusion (MagLIF) concept [1], MRTI can cause the liner to break up in-flight, degrading its ability to compress the fusion fuel. We present magnetohydrodynamic simulations of a series of experiments [2] at the Z-facility studying MRTI growth in metallic liner implosions with pre-machined sinusoidal initial conditions. We compare the instability amplitude growth and evolution of MRTI structure from the experimental radiographic images with synthetic data from multi-physics simulations in the ARES code. The role of the low density vacuum plasma, including the importance of anomalous resistivity, will be assessed.
*This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
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Publication: [1] Slutz et al., Phys. Plasmas 17, 056303 (2010);
[2] Sinars et al. Phys. Plasmas 18, 056301 (2011); Sinars et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 185001 (2010);
Presenters
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Shailaja Humane
- University of Michigan