A 3D dynamic model to assess the impacts of low-mode asymmetry, aneurysms and mix-induced radiative loss on capsule performance across inertial confinement fusion platforms.

A simple 3D dynamic model for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosions has been developed and used to assess the impacts of low-mode asymmetry, aneurysms and mix-induced radiative loss on capsule performance across ICF platforms. The model, while benchmarked against radiation hydrodynamics simulations, benefits from simplicity and speed to allow rapid assessment of possible sources of degradation as well as to help build intuition about the relative importance of different effects. Degradations in the model result from 3D areal density perturbations that grow under deceleration from a radial stagnation flow, resulting in reduced convergence, stagnation pressure and temperature. When available, experimental data are used as input to seed 3D perturbations in the model so that the actual observed hotspot and shell areal density asymmetry at stagnation, as well as the radiation loss increase from mix impurities, are accurately reproduced. This model is applied to a broad set of implosion data from the NIF and Omega, including examples from both indirect drive and direct drive. The model matches most experimental observables and explains major performance degradation mechanisms which can result in 30–100-fold reductions in yield. We examine a modified ignition criterion that accounts for the increase in expansion work, due to the presence of 3D perturbations and loss-of-confinement in thin regions of the shell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]