Ignition scaling laws and their application to capsule design

This paper investigates the amount of energy required to ensure the ignition of an inertial confinement fusion capsule. First, a series of one-dimensional LASNEX [G. B. Zimmerman and W. L. Kruer, Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 2, 51 (1975)] simulations are performed to create a database of barely ignited capsules that span the parameter regime of interest. This database is used to develop scaling laws for the ignition energy in terms of both the stagnated capsule parameters and the in-flight capsule parameters, and to explore the connection between these two parameter sets. We then examine how much extra energy is required to overcome the effect of the inevitable surface imperfections that are amplified during the implosion process. These perturbations can lead to break up of the capsule in flight or to mix of cold fuel into the hot spot, both of which can cause the capsule to fail. As an example, a family of capsules with fixed adiabat, drive pressure, and absorbed energy is studied; the capsule from this family that is maximally robust to these failure modes is found.

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