Multi-fluid studies of plasma shocks relevant to inertial confinement fusion

Abstract

Results from inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments performed at the Omega laser facility suggest the potential role of kinetic effects in plasmas during implosion. Recent theoretical and numerical work has indicated the importance of diffusion effects in the presence of multiple ion species as well as the importance of ion viscosity. This provides the motivation to adequately develop multi-fluid plasma models capable of capturing kinetic physics including concentration diffusion and ion species separation driven by the ion concentration gradient, the ion pressure gradient, the electron and ion temperature gradients, and the electric field. Benchmarks between the newly developed code and analytical results are presented for multi-fluid plasma shocks.