Plasma-Jet Convergence Calculations

Converging plasma jets may be able to reach the regime of high energy density plasmas (HEDP, $\sim10^{11}\ J\ m^{-3}$). If plasma jets can be used for magneto-inertial fusion (MIF) [1], the resulting heating by fusion products might generate even higher energy density plasmas. This poster reports the results of using the UW's 1D Lagrangian, rad-hydro, fusion code BUCKY to investigate two cases of converging plasma jets formulated in Ref.\ 2. The BUCKY code solves single-fluid equations of motion with ion-electron interactions, PdV work, table-lookup equations of state, fast-ion energy deposition, and one or two temperatures. Extensions to the code include magnetic field evolution as the plasmoid compresses, B-field pressure, plus dependence of the thermal conductivity on the magnetic field. Some parametric explorations are also reported. \\[4pt] [1] Y.C. F. Thio, et al.,``Magnetized Target Fusion in a Spheroidal Geometry with Standoff Drivers,'' in Current Trends in Int'l Fusion Research, E. Panarella, ed. (NRC--Canada, Ottawa, Canada, 1999), p. 113. \newline [2] R. Samulyak, P. Parks, and L. Wu, ``Spherically Symmetric Simulation of Plasma Liner Driven Magnetoinertial Fusion,'' Physics of Plasmas 17, 092702 (2010).