Theoretical and numerical research of wire array Z-pinch and dynamic hohlraum at IAPCM

Dense Z-pinch plasmas are powerful and energy-efficient laboratory sources of X-rays,and show the possibility to drive inertial confinement fusion(ICF).Recent advances in wire-array Z-pinch and Z-pinch dynamic hohlraum(ZPDH)researches at the Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics are presented in this paper.Models are setup to study different physical processes.A full circuit model(FCM)was used to study the coupling between Z-pinch implosion and generator discharge.A mass injection model with azimuthal modulation was setup to simulate the wire-array plasma initiation,and the two-dimensional MHD code MARED was developed to investigate the Z-pinch implosion,MRT instability,stagnation and radiation.Implosions of nested and quasi-spherical wire arrays were also investigated theoretically and numerically.Key processes of ZPDH,such as the arrayefoam interaction,formation of the hohlraum radiation,as well as the following capsule ablation and implosion,were analyzed with different radiation magneto-hydrodynamics(RMHD)codes.An integrated 2D RMHD simulation of dynamic hohlraum driven capsule implosion provides us the physical insights of wire-array plasma acceleration,shock generation and propagation,hohlraum formation,radiation ablation,and fuel compression.

Preliminary investigation on electrothermal instabilities in early phases of cylindrical foil implosions on primary test stand facility

Recent experiments on the implosions of 15-mm long and 2-μm thick aluminum liners having a diameter of 12.8 mm have been performed on the primary test stand(PTS) facility. The stratified structures are observed as alternating dark and light transverse stripes in the laser shadowgraph images. These striations perpendicular to the current flow are formed early in the implosion, i.e., at the stage when the bulk of the material mass was almost at rest. A two-dimensional(2 D)magnetohydrodynamics(MHD) code is employed to simulate the behavior of liner dynamics in the early phases. It is found that the striations may be produced by the electrothermal instability(ETI) that results from non-uniform Joule heating due to the characteristic relation between the resistivity and the temperature. In 2 D simulations, the stratified structures can be seen obviously in both density and temperature contours as the liner expands rapidly. By analyzing instability spectrum, the dominant wavelengths of the perturbations are 8.33 μm–20.0 μm, which agree qualitatively with the theoretical predictions.It is also interesting to show that ETI provides a significant seed to the subsequent magneto Rayleigh–Taylor(MRT)instability.

Scaling of rise time of drive current on development of magneto-Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities for single-shell Z-pinches

In fast Z-pinches,rise time of drive current plays an important role in development of magneto-Rayleigh–Taylor(MRT)instabilities.It is essential for applications of Z-pinch dynamic hohlraum(ZPDH),which could be used for driving inertial confinement fusion(ICF),to understand the scaling of rise time on MRTs.Therefore,a theoretical model for nonlinear development of MRTs is developed according to the numerical analysis.It is found from the model that the implosion distance L=r_(0)-r_(mc)determines the development of MRTs,where r_(0)is the initial radius and rmc is the position of the accelerating shell.The current rise timeτwould affect the MRT development because of its strong coupling with the r;.The amplitude of MRTs would increase with the rise time linearly if an implosion velocity is specified.The effects of the rise time on MRT,in addition,are studied by numerical simulation.The results are consistent with those of the theoretical model very well.Finally,the scaling of the rise time on amplitude of MRTs is obtained for a specified implosion velocity by the theoretical model and numerical simulations.