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Design considerations for indirectly driven double shell capsules

Authors :
Brian J. Albright
William Daughton
M. D. Rosen
Evan Dodd
Robert Tipton
Mark Gunderson
E. C. Merritt
Jose Milovich
D. S. Montgomery
Tana Cardenas
R. C. Kirkpatrick
Harry Robey
Peter Amendt
Andrei N. Simakov
Doug Wilson
Eric Loomis
Robert G. Watt
Source :
Physics of Plasmas. 25:092706
Publication Year :
2018
Publisher :
AIP Publishing, 2018.

Abstract

Double shell capsules are predicted to ignite and burn at relatively low temperature (∼3 keV) via volume ignition and are a potential low-convergence path to substantial α-heating and possibly ignition at the National Ignition Facility. Double shells consist of a dense, high-Z pusher, which first shock heats and then performs work due to changes in pressure and volume (PdV work) on deuterium-tritium gas, bringing the entire fuel volume to high pressure thermonuclear conditions near implosion stagnation. The high-Z pusher is accelerated via a shock and subsequent compression of an intervening foam cushion by an ablatively driven low-Z outer shell. A broad capsule design parameter space exists due to the inherent flexibility of potential materials for the outer and inner shells and foam cushion. This is narrowed down by design physics choices and the ability to fabricate and assemble the separate pieces forming a double shell capsule. We describe the key physics for good double shell performance, the trade-offs in various design choices, and the challenges for capsule fabrication. Both 1D and 2D calculations from radiation-hydrodynamic simulations are presented.

Details

ISSN :
10897674 and 1070664X
Volume :
25
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Physics of Plasmas
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........b2c212a90ad404a2b506b284a9db2db2
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5042478