Assessment of High-β Magnetized Target Formation and Plasma-Liner Nonuniformities in Plasma-Jet-Driven Magneto-Inertial Fusion using the FLASH Code

The Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX) is being used to explore a potentially lower-cost fusion-energy concept by which an imploding spherical plasma liner will compress a magnetized plasma target to fusion conditions [1,2], a concept known as plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion (PJMIF). The liner is produced by merging of supersonic plasma jets, and each jet is generated by a coaxial plasma gun. Using the FLASH code, we study possible formation of a high-β magnetized target (β > 1, ω_iτ_i > 1) by merging pre-magnetized jets [3]. Furthermore, we characterize how liner nonuniformities degrade the implosion during target compression. Adaptive mesh refinement in FLASH permits study of shock structures formed by the merging jets and their consequences in 2D and 3D. We compare FLASH results for target compression with recent relevant 1D simulation results [4,5]. The FLASH results will help guide experiments and continued assessment of the PJMIF concept.

[1] S. C. Hsu et al., IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 40, 1287 (2012); [2] S. C. Hsu et al., ibid 46, 1951 (2018); [3] S. C. Hsu and S. J. Langendorf, J. Fusion Energy, Accepted (2018); [4] C. E. Knapp and R. C. Kirkpatrick, Phys. Plasmas 21, 070701 (2014); [5] S. J. Langendorf and S. C. Hsu, ibid 24, 032704 (2017).