A Coupled Vlasov-Rosenbluth-Fokker-Planck and Radiation Modeling of a NIF Polar Direct Drive Exploding Pusher Capsule

Polar direct-drive exploding pusher (PDD-EP) capsules at NIF have been proposed as high-fluence neutron sources and a platform for neutron capture cross-section measurement for laboratory astrophysics experiments. Due to the low fill density and high-temperature conditions supported by PDD-EP capsules, however, the Knudsen number far exceeds unity, requiring a Vlasov-Fokker-Planck (VFP) kinetic description for the plasmas to correctly account for transport effects. The iFP spherical implosion VFP code [1] has recently been extended to include radiation capabilities that leverages the LANL TOPS LTE opacity library. We use iFP to model the Cutie PDD EP experiment [2] and report on observable metrics like nuclear yield and burn-averaged quantities. We present first-of-a-kind simulation results that faithfully account for kinetic plasma and radiation effects and compare our results with predictions from the xRAGE radiation hydrodynamic code and experiments.

[1] W.T. Taitano et al., Comp. Phys. Comm., 263 (2021) 107861

[2] C.B. Yeamans et al., Nucl. Fusion, 61 (2021) 046031