On the predictive estimation of converging shock waves

Converging shock waves have the ability to generate high energy concentrations, important for inertial confinement fusion applications. In order to create more stable shock configurations, recently, it has been proposed to shape the shock front by the means of obstacles. In this work, the stability of this configuration is verified by means of a stochastic numerical simulation, taking into account uncertainties of the experimental set-up, as for example, the inlet conditions, the shape and position of the obstacles. For this reason, an eulerian unstructured grid solver based on a mixed finite volume/finite element approach is coupled with a Polynomial Chaos method. This analysis allows estimating the variability of the maximal temperature and energy. Finally, obstacle shape is optimized in order to maximize the energy concentration and thus provide useful remarks for improving the experience. Mots clefs : converging shock waves ; robust optimization ; uncertainty quantification