Numerical simulation on a new cylindrical target for Z-pinch driven inertial confinement fusion

Abstract

A new indirectly driven cylindrical target is proposed for Z-pinch inertial confinement fusion, and the target implosion dynamics is simulated with a combination of the mass-point model and the radiation hydrodynamic model. Driven by a current waveform with the peak value of 60 MA and 10–90% rising time of 180 ns, the shell kinetic energy of 5 MJ cm−1 can be obtained when the 60 mg cm−1 liner with initial radius 5 cm is imploded to radius of 5 mm. The simulated kinetic energy is loaded to compress the multi-layer cylindrical target, and 24.6 MJ fusion energy can be released according to the radiation hydrodynamic simulation. The power balance relationship is analyzed for the fusion fuel, and the fuel is ignited in the volume-ignition style. The target here can avoid the problem of coupling between the cylindrical Z-pinch and spherical fusion capsule, and can make use of dynamics hohlraum to weaken the influence of Z-pinch instability on the fuel compression. The implosion dynamics of the cylindrical fusion target is easy to diagnose from the axial direction, which makes it suitable to be investigated in future experiments.