Progress in 3D Modeling of Direct-drive Inertial Confinement Implosions using HYDRA

Modeling of direct-drive (DD) inertial confinement fusion implosions in 3D is essential to understanding the effects of low-, mid-, and high-mode nonuniformity sources on target compression, perturbation evolution, and performance. Cross-beam energy transfer (CBET) has been shown to have a significant effect on both laser-to-capsule energy coupling as well as nonuniformity seeding. A computational platform for modeling DD implosions using the radiation–hydrodynamics code HYDRA has been developed through an LLE–LLNL collaboration. Recently, simulations were performed of OMEGA DD implosions including the as-measured low-mode perturbations sources of beam geometry, target offset, time-dependent laser power imbalance, beam-to-beam mistiming, and beam mispointing. Both CBET and nonlocal thermal conduction were included. These results show excellent agreement with multiple experimental observables, even in the presence of a large ℓ = 1 mode. Future development work will be outlined, including near-term modeling of mid- and high-mode perturbation sources and polar-drive experiments for the NIF.