Estimates of confinement time and energy gain for plasma liner driven magnetoinertial fusion using an analytic self-similar converging shock model

Abstract

Plasma liner driven magnetoinertial fusion (PLMIF) is a fusion energy concept that utilizes an imploding plasma liner to shock heat and compress a magnetized target plasma to fusion conditions. The fusion burn fraction is linearly proportional to the confinement (or “dwell”) time of the liner-target system at peak compression, and therefore it is important to estimate the dwell time accurately in order to assess the fusion energy yield and gain. In this work, the dwell time has been estimated using the exact solution to a self-similar converging shock model. The dwell time was found to be determined by the sum of the outgoing shock and rarefaction times through the plasma liner at peak compression, and for chosen PLMIF conditions the dwell time was on the order of 1 μs. In addition, we show that the engineering gain, i.e., the total energy extracted as electricity (from fusion plus expanded liner energy) divided by the electrical energy required to implode the liner, exceeds unity for a wide range of liner thicknesses and specific heat ratios.