Assessing stagnation magnetized liner inertial fusion stagnation conditions and identifying trends.
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A technique for measuring residual motion during the stagnation phase of an indirectly driven inertial confinement experiment has been implemented. This method infers a velocity from spatially and temporally resolved images of the X-ray emission from two orthogonal lines of sight. This work investigates the accuracy of recovering spatially resolved velocities from the X-ray emission data. A detailed analytical and numerical modeling of the X-ray emission measurement shows that the accuracy of this method increases as the displacement that results from a residual velocity increase. For the typical experimental configuration, signal-to-noise ratios, and duration of X-ray emission, it is estimated that the fractional error in the inferred velocity rises above 50% as the velocity of emission falls below 24 μm/ns. By inputting measured parameters into this model, error estimates of the residual velocity as inferred from the X-ray emission measurements are now able to be generated for experimental data. Details of this analysis are presented for an implosion experiment conducted with an unintentional radiation flux asymmetry. The analysis shows a bright localized region of emission that moves through the larger emitting volume at a relatively higher velocity towards the location of the imposed flux deficit. This technique allows for the possibility of spatially resolving velocity flows within the so-called central hot spot of an implosion. This information would help to refine our interpretation of the thermal temperature inferred from the neutron time of flight detectors and the effect of localized hydrodynamic instabilities during the stagnation phase. Across several experiments, along a single line of sight, the average difference in magnitude and direction of the measured residual velocity as inferred from the X-ray and neutron time of flight detectors was found to be ∼13 μm/ns and ∼14°, respectively.
The time history of the local ion kinetic energy in a stagnating plasma was determined from Doppler-dominated line shapes. Using independent determination of the plasma properties for the same plasma region, the data allowed for inferring the time-dependent ion temperature, and for discriminating the temperature from the total ion kinetic energy. It is found that throughout most of the stagnation period the ion thermal energy constitutes a small fraction of the total ion kinetic energy; the latter is dominated by hydrodynamic motion. Both the ion hydrodynamic and thermal energies are observed to decrease to the electron thermal energy by the end of the stagnation period. It is confirmed that the total ion kinetic energy available at the stagnating plasma and the total radiation emitted are in balance, as obtained in our previous experiment. The dissipation time of the hydrodynamic energy thus appears to determine the duration (and power) of the K emission.
Encouraging progress is being made in demonstrating control of ablation front hydrodynamic instability growth in inertial confinement fusion implosion experiments on the National Ignition Facility [E. I. Moses, R. N. Boyd, B. A. Remington, C. J. Keane, and R. Al-Ayat, Phys. Plasmas 16, 041006 (2009)]. Even once ablation front stabilities are controlled, however, instability during the stagnation phase of the implosion can still quench ignition. A scheme is proposed to reduce the growth of stagnation phase instabilities through the reverse of the “adiabat shaping” mechanism proposed to control ablation front growth. Two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics simulations confirm that improved stagnation phase stability should be possible without compromising fuel compression.
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We report that argon gas puffs have produced 330 kJ ± 9% of x-ray radiation above 3 keV photon energy in fast z-pinch implosions, with remarkably reproducible K-shell spectra and power pulses. This reproducibility in x-ray production is particularly significant in light of the variations in instability evolution observed between experiments. Lastly, soft x-ray power measurements and K-shell line ratios from a time-resolved spectrum at peak x-ray power suggest that plasma gradients in these high-mass pinches may limit the K-shell radiating mass, K-shell power, and K-shell yield from high-current gas puffs.
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We present here the detailed measurements of radial distribution of the magnetic field in a gas-puff z-pinch plasma at the final stages of the implosion phase and at stagnation. While the measurements are chordal, the radial distribution of different charge states was utilized to measure the magnetic field locally for certain radii, so that unlike chordal measurements in general, the magnetic field radial distribution was obtained with no need for the Abel inversion of the data. The distribution was measured using the Zeeman effect via a novel spectroscopic technique, at several axial locations, and demonstrates striking features such as the peak field remaining at a radius much larger than the stagnation radius at all times. Furthermore, while the distribution observed is sometimes monotonic with respect to the radius, it is often not, a behavior that can be linked to 2D features in the plasma column resulting from the Rayleigh–Taylor instability. The current flowing through the stagnating plasma was found to be a small fraction of the total current, resulting in clearly insufficient magnetic pressure to balance the plasma pressure at stagnation. The magnetic field data, taken over several axial positions, are used to obtain the true inductance in the imploding plasma for the first time; it is found that the data cannot explain the current turnover at stagnation. A simulation with the MACH2-Tabular Collisional-Radiative Equilibrium magnetohydrodynamics code in the r–z plane shows that the peak of the magnetic field pinches to a much smaller radius than is observed in the spectroscopic data. Furthermore, the depth of the computed current turnover at stagnation is smaller than the measured one. The two observed features of a radially extended magnetic field at stagnation together with a deep current turnover are a challenge to match in simulations. Various calculations and estimates of the inductive and resistive load voltages are examined to ascertain if they are responsible for the observed current notch. Lastly, the results demonstrate that the knowledge of the true inductance in the driven load requires such magnetic-field-distribution measurements and that imaging data or electrical measurements are insufficient.
This paper develops a unified analysis of stagnation flow heat and mass transport, considering both semi-infinite domains and finite gaps, with and without rotation of the stagnation surface. An important objective is to derive Nusselt- and Sherwood-number correlations that represent heat and mass transport at the stagnation surface. The approach is based on computationally solving the governing conservation equations in similarity form as a boundary-value problem. The formulation considers ideal gases and incompressible fluids. The correlated results depend on fluid properties in terms of Prandtl, Schmidt, and Damkohler numbers. Heterogeneous chemistry at the stagnation surface is represented as a single first-order reaction. A composite Reynolds number represents the combination of stagnation flows with and without stagnation-surface rotation.
We have investigated plasma stagnation and interaction effects in colliding laser-produced plasmas. For generating colliding plasmas, two split laser beams were line-focused onto a hemi-circular target and the seed plasmas so produced were allowed to expand in mutually orthogonal directions. This experimental setup forced the expanding seed plasmas to come to a focus at the center of the chamber. The interpenetration and stagnation of plasmas of candidate fusion wall materials, viz., carbon and tungsten, and other materials, viz., aluminum, and molybdenum were investigated in this study. Fast-gated imaging, Faraday cup ion analysis, and optical emission spectroscopy were used for diagnosing seed and colliding plasma plumes. Our results show that high-Z target (W, Mo) plasma ions interpenetrate each other, while low-Z (C, Al) plasmas stagnate at the collision plane. For carbon seed plasmas, an intense stagnation was observed resulting in longer plasma lifetime; in addition, the stagnation layer was found to be rich with C{sub 2} dimers.
We investigate the stagnation phase of a three-dimensional (3D), magnetohydrodynamic simulation of a compact, tungsten wire-array Z pinch, under the simplifying assumption of negligible radiative loss. In particular, we address the ability of one-dimensional (1D) analytic theory to describe the time evolution of spatially averaged plasma properties from 3D simulation. The complex fluid flows exhibited in the stagnated plasma are beyond the scope of 1D theory and result in centrifugal force as well as enhanced thermal transport. Despite these complications, a 1D homogeneous (i.e., shockless) stagnation solution can capture the increase of on-axis density and pressure during the initial formation of stagnated plasma. Later, when the stagnated plasma expands outward into the imploding plasma, a 1D shock solution describes the decrease of on-axis density and pressure, as well as the growth of the shock accretion region.
We examine the relationships between the magnetic field and the radial velocity component V{sub R} observed in the heliosheath by instruments on Voyager 1 (V1). No increase in the magnetic field strength B was observed in a region where V{sub R} decreased linearly from 70 km s{sup -1} to 0 km s{sup -1} as plasma moved outward past V1. An unusually broad transition from positive to negative polarity was observed during a Almost-Equal-To 26 day interval when the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) moved below the latitude of V1 and the speed of V1 was comparable to the radial speed of the heliosheath flow. When V1 moved through a region where V{sub R} Almost-Equal-To 0 (the 'stagnation region'), B increased linearly with time by a factor of two, and the average of B was 0.14 nT. Nothing comparable to this was observed previously. The magnetic polarity was negative throughout the stagnation region for Almost-Equal-To 580 days until 2011 DOY 235, indicating that the HCS was below the latitude of V1. The average passage times of the magnetic holes and proton boundary layers were the same during 2009 and 2011, because the plasma moved past V1 during 2009 at the same speed that V1 moved through the stagnation region during 2011. The microscale fluctuations of B in the stagnation region during 2011 are qualitatively the same as those observed in the heliosheath during 2009. These results suggest that the stagnation region is a part of the heliosheath, rather than a 'transition region' associated with the heliopause.
The laser-produced colliding plasmas have numerous attractive applications and stagnation layer formed during collisions between plasmas is a useful system for understanding particle collisions and molecular formation in a controlled way. In this article, we explore carbon dimer formation and its evolutionary paths in a stagnation layer formed during the interaction of two laser-produced plasmas. Colliding laser produced plasmas are generated by splitting a laser beam into two sub-beams and then focus them into either a single flat (laterally colliding plasmas) or a V-shaped graphite targets (orthogonally colliding plasmas). The C2 formation in the stagnation region of both colliding plasma schemes is investigated using optical spectroscopic means and compared with emission features from single seed plasma. Our results show that the collisions among the plasmas followed by the stagnation layer formation lead to rapid cooling causing enhanced carbon dimer formation. In addition, plasma electron temperature, density and C2 molecular temperature were measured for the stagnation zone and compared with seed plasma.
Here we derive an approximate turbulent self-similar model for a class of favorable pressure gradient wedge-like flows, focusing on the stagnation point limit. While the self-similar model provides a useful gross flow field estimate this approach must be combined with a near wall model is to determine skin friction and by Reynolds analogy the heat transfer coefficient. The combined approach is developed in detail for the stagnation point flow problem where turbulent skin friction and Nusselt number results are obtained. Comparison to the classical Van Driest (1958) result suggests overall reasonable agreement. Though the model is only valid near the stagnation region of cylinders and spheres it nonetheless provides a reasonable model for overall cylinder and sphere heat transfer. The enhancement effect of free stream turbulence upon the laminar flow is used to derive a similar expression which is valid for turbulent flow. Examination of free stream enhanced laminar flow suggests that the rather than enhancement of a laminar flow behavior free stream disturbance results in early transition to turbulent stagnation point behavior. Excellent agreement is shown between enhanced laminar flow and turbulent flow behavior for high levels, e.g. 5% of free stream turbulence. Finally the blunt body turbulent stagnation results are shown to provide realistic heat transfer results for turbulent jet impingement problems.
Abstract. Recent studies suggested significant impacts of boreal cryosphere changes on wintertime air stagnation and haze pollution extremes in China. However, the underlying mechanisms of such a teleconnection relationship remains unclear. Here we use the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) to investigate dynamic processes leading to atmospheric circulation and air stagnation responses to Arctic sea ice changes. We conduct four climate sensitivity experiments by perturbing sea ice concentrations (SIC) and corresponding sea surface temperature (SST) in autumn and early winter over the whole Arctic and three subregions in the climate model. The results indicate distinct responses in circulation patterns and regional ventilation to the region-specific Arctic changes, with the largest increase of both the probability (by 132 %) and the intensity (by 30 %) of monthly air stagnation extremes being found in the experiment driven by SIC and SST changes over the Pacific sector of the Arctic (the East Siberian and Chukchi seas). The increased air stagnation extremes are mainly driven by an amplified planetary-scale atmospheric teleconnection pattern that resembles the negative phase of the Eurasian (EU) pattern. Dynamical diagnostics suggest that convergence of transient eddy forcing in the vicinity of Scandinavia in winter is largely responsible for the amplification of the teleconnection pattern. Transient eddy vorticity fluxes dominate the transient eddy forcing and produce a barotropic anticyclonic anomaly near Scandinavia and wave train propagation across Eurasia to the downstream regions in East Asia. The piecewise potential vorticity inversion analysis reveals that this long-range atmospheric teleconnection of Arctic origin takes place primarily via the middle and upper troposphere. The anomalous ridge over East Asia in the middle and upper troposphere worsens regional ventilation conditions by weakening monsoon northwesterlies and enhancing temperature inversions near the surface, leading to more and stronger air stagnation and pollution extremes over eastern China in winter. Ensemble projections based on state-of-the-art climate models in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) corroborate this teleconnection relationship between high-latitude environmental changes and midlatitude weather extremes, though the tendency and magnitude vary considerably among each participating model.
Stagnation of a cold plasma streaming to the center or axis of symmetry via an expanding accretion shock wave is ubiquitous in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and high-energy-density plasma physics, the examples ranging from plasma flows in x-ray-generating Z pinches [Maron et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 035001 (2013)] to the experiments in support of the recently suggested concept of impact ignition in ICF [Azechi et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 235002 (2009); Murakami et al., Nucl. Fusion 54, 054007 (2014)]. Some experimental evidence indicates that stagnation via an expanding shock wave is stable, but its stability has never been studied theoretically. We present such analysis for the stagnation that does not involve a rarefaction wave behind the expanding shock front and is described by the classic ideal-gas Noh solution in spherical and cylindrical geometry. In either case, the stagnated flow has been demonstrated to be stable, initial perturbations exhibiting a power-law, oscillatory or monotonic, decay with time for all the eigenmodes. This conclusion has been supported by our simulations done both on a Cartesian grid and on a curvilinear grid in spherical coordinates. Dispersion equation determining the eigenvalues of the problem and explicit formulas for the eigenfunction profiles corresponding to these eigenvalues are presented, making it possible to use the theory for hydrocode verification in two and three dimensions.