Counter-propagating Shock Research Articles

Interactions and Dynamics of One-Dimensional Droplets, Bubbles and Kinks

We explore the dynamics and interactions of multiple bright droplets and bubbles, as well as the interactions of kinks with droplets and with antikinks, in the extended one-dimensional Gross–Pitaevskii model including the Lee–Huang–Yang correction. Existence regions are identified for the one-dimensional droplets and bubbles in terms of their chemical potential, verifying the stability of the droplets and exposing the instability of the bubbles. The limiting case of the droplet family is a stable kink. The interactions between droplets demonstrate in-phase (out-of-phase) attraction (repulsion), with the so-called Manton’s method explicating the observed dynamical response, and mixed behavior for intermediate values of the phase shift. Droplets bearing different chemical potentials experience mass-exchange phenomena. Individual bubbles exhibit core expansion and mutual attraction prior to their destabilization. Droplets interacting with kinks are absorbed by them, a process accompanied by the emission of dispersive shock waves and gray solitons. Kink–antikink interactions are repulsive, generating counter-propagating shock waves. Our findings reveal dynamical features of droplets and kinks that can be detected in current experiments.

Study on Collision Process of Opposing Unsteady Supersonic Jets and Shock Waves

Double pulsed-laser-ablation is a promising method to prepare nanoparticle composites. The backward movement of the plume after the collision with counter-propagating shock wave has been observed in experiments. In the present study, collision dynamics of the oppositely injected Si and Ge jets into a He background gas was numerically calculated as a simulation for double pulsed-laser-ablation. The experimentally observed backward movement was reproduced. The effect of distance between two jet exits on the distance of backward movement of the jet, BL, after the collision with the counter-propagating shock front was calculated to discuss the collision dynamics and to optimize the target distance for the experiment. We found that BL does not decrease monotonically with increasing distance between two jet exits, but has a maximum value at a certain distance. This behavior is discussed by calculating the expansion dynamics of an individual jet. Shock wave grows with time at the initial stage of the jet expansion and then attenuates; the density just behind the shock front for individual jet has a maximum value at a certain time and position. BL has a maximum value when the densities just behind the shock fronts for the individual jets have maximum values. This result is important for designing the appropriate distance between the two jet exits, i.e., the distance between the targets of double pulsed-laser-ablation.

First radiative shock experiments on the SG-II laser

Abstract We report on the design and first results from experiments looking at the formation of radiative shocks on the Shenguang-II (SG-II) laser at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics in China. Laser-heating of a two-layer CH/CH–Br foil drives a $\sim 40$ km/s shock inside a gas cell filled with argon at an initial pressure of 1 bar. The use of gas-cell targets with large (several millimetres) lateral and axial extent allows the shock to propagate freely without any wall interactions, and permits a large field of view to image single and colliding counter-propagating shocks with time-resolved, point-projection X-ray backlighting ( $\sim 20$ μm source size, 4.3 keV photon energy). Single shocks were imaged up to 100 ns after the onset of the laser drive, allowing to probe the growth of spatial nonuniformities in the shock apex. These results are compared with experiments looking at counter-propagating shocks, showing a symmetric drive that leads to a collision and stagnation from $\sim 40$ ns onward. We present a preliminary comparison with numerical simulations with the radiation hydrodynamics code ARWEN, which provides expected plasma parameters for the design of future experiments in this facility.

Development of Indirectly Driven Shock Tube Targets for Counter-Propagating Shear-Driven Kelvin-Helmholtz Experiments on the National Ignition Facility

The shear experiments are designed to investigate the transition to turbulence of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability driven by counter-propagating shear flows. The shear targets for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) shear experiments consist of two hohlraums connected to both ends of a shock tube. The cylindrical shock tube is filled with two hemi-cylindrical CH foams separated by a metal tracer foil. On both ends, a thick gold half-moon–shaped D-plug is placed on opposite halves of the tube to create counter-propagating shock waves. The design is based on a smaller Omega shear target. While the basic NIF design has remained the same, details of the design have undergone several changes over the last 2 years and continue to evolve to improve the quality of the experimental results. Design changes include shock tube designs, tracer foil variations, transitioning to beryllium spool machining, and groove features inside of the tube. Details of how the targets are built including design, machining the parts, target assembly, and metrology are presented, as well as recent target developmental work to meet the needs of future experiments and to improve target assembly efficiency and accuracy.

Boundaries of Hysteresis Region during Interference of Counter Propagating Compression Shocks

Background/Objectives: This paper is determined a hysteresis region of transition moment from regular reflection to irregular and backwards during change of Mach number of oncoming flow and angle of flow deflection at shock. Methods/Statistical Analysis: There are two fundamentally different regimes of counter propagating shock interaction: four-wave regular and five-wave irregular. Transition from one regime to another can be non-stationary intermittent or gradual. It can also be accompanied by hysteresis. Hysteresis is considered as a possibility for two different shock-wave structures to exist under the same parameters of interference. Findings: Experiments and numerical calculations show that hysteresis takes place in a limited region of Mach numbers and angles of flow deflection at shock. In this region the theory allows for existence of regular and irregular interactions. Aim of the present work is to determine this region of hysteresis existences. Applications/Improvements: So, experiments and numerical calculations show that hysteresis during interference of counter propa-gating shocks takes place in a limited region of Mach number and flow deflection angle at shock variation.

Tracking the density evolution in counter-propagating shock waves using imaging X-ray scattering

We present results from time-resolved X-ray imaging and inelastic scattering on collective excitations. These data are then employed to infer the mass density evolution within laser-driven shock waves. In our experiments, thin carbon foils are first strongly compressed and then driven into a dense state by counter-propagating shock waves. The different measurements agree that the graphite sample is about twofold compressed when the shock waves collide, and a sharp increase in forward scattering indicates disassembly of the sample 1 ns thereafter. We can benchmark hydrodynamics simulations of colliding shock waves by the X-ray scattering methods employed.

Practicality of magnetic compression for plasma density control

Plasma densification through magnetic compression has been suggested for time-resolved control of the wave properties in plasma-based accelerators [P. F. Schmit and N. J. Fisch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 255003 (2012)]. Using particle in cell simulations with real mass ratio, the practicality of large magnetic compression on timescales shorter than the ion gyro-period is investigated. For compression times shorter than the transit time of a compressional Alfven wave across the plasma slab, results show the formation of two counter-propagating shock waves, leading to a highly non-uniform plasma density profile. Furthermore, the plasma slab displays large hydromagnetic like oscillations after the driving field has reached steady state. Peak compression is obtained when the two shocks collide in the mid-plane. At this instant, very large plasma heating is observed, and the plasma β is estimated to be about 1. Although these results point out a densification mechanism quite different and more complex than initially envisioned, these features still might be advantageous in particle accelerators.

Supersonic jet and shock interactions

Supersonic fluid flow and the interaction of strong shock waves to produce jets of material are ubiquitous features of inertial confinement fusion (ICF), astrophysics, and other fields of high energy-density science. The availability of large laser systems provides an opportunity to investigate such hydrodynamic systems in the laboratory, and to test their modeling by radiation hydrocodes. We describe experiments to investigate the propagation of a structured shock front within a radiation-driven target assembly, the formation of a supersonic jet of material, and the subsequent interaction of this jet with an ambient medium in which a second, ablatively driven shock wave is propagating. The density distribution within the jet, the Kelvin–Helmholz roll-up at the tip of the jet, and the jet’s interaction with the counterpropagating shock are investigated by x-ray backlighting. The experiments were designed and modeled using radiation hydrocodes developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory, AWE, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The same hydrocodes are being used to model a large number of other ICF and high energy-density physics experiments. Excellent agreement between the different simulations and the experimental data is obtained, but only when the full geometry of the experiment, including both laser-heated hohlraum targets (driving the jet and counter-propagating shock), is included. The experiments were carried out at the University of Rochester’s Omega laser [J. M. Soures et al., Phys. Plasmas 3, 2108 (1996)].