UC San Diego

Inertial confinement fusion is one of two primary approaches to the production of fusion energy for power generation. Due to the high cost of experimentation for large scale systems such as Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (Laser IFE), the ability to accurately simulate the expected performance using properly validated models is of critical importance. The evolution of the chamber environment from target injection through the generation of fusion energy is a key issue for the success of Laser IFE. Because burn emissions have the potential to damage IFE chamber walls, chamber gas is investigated to protect the wall. In the research presented, a new fluid algorithm for gas mixtures is created through the extension and correction of a prior single gas algorithm for IFE chamber gases. Once validated, this algorithm is applied to an array of chamber gases, densities, and geometric configurations. Resulting chamber states are used to estimate direct-drive target survival within the gas. This defines a new safe design window for chamber gas. This work also highlights key areas of future research to minimize uncertainty in the system design window