Modeling high-compression, direct-drive, ICF experiments

Abstract

The success of direct-drive-ignition target designs depends on two issues: the ability to maintain the main fuel entropy at a low level and the control of the nonuniformity growth during the implosion. Modelling the ICF experiments requires an accurate account for all sources of shell heating, including the shock heating, radiation and suprathermal electrons preheat, and small-scale perturbation growth. To increase calculation accuracy, a new heat-transport model has been developed and implemented in the 1-D hydrocode LILAC. This model includes both the effect of the resonance absorption and the nonlocal thermal transport. The OMEGA experiments designed with the help of the new model have achieved high-areal-density (ρR > 200 mg/cm2) fuel assembly in the low-adiabat cryogenic shell implosions.