A semi-analytic model of magnetized liner inertial fusion

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive semi-analytic model for magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) that captures key physical processes and reproduces the behavior of previous detailed simulations, providing insights into radiative losses and fuel heating.

Contribution

The paper presents a new semi-analytic model of MagLIF that simplifies complex physics while accurately reproducing 1D behavior of the original detailed simulations.

Findings

Model reproduces general 1D behavior of MagLIF

Insights into radiative loss dependence on preheated fuel fraction

Framework for analyzing key physics in MagLIF simulations

Abstract

Presented is a semi-analytic model of magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF). This model accounts for several key aspects of MagLIF, including: (1) preheat of the fuel (optionally via laser absorption); (2) pulsed-power-driven liner implosion; (3) liner compressibility with an analytic equation of state, artificial viscosity, internal magnetic pressure, and ohmic heating; (4) adiabatic compression and heating of the fuel; (5) radiative losses and fuel opacity; (6) magnetic flux compression with Nernst thermoelectric losses; (7) magnetized electron and ion thermal conduction losses; (8) end losses; (9) enhanced losses due to prescribed dopant concentrations and contaminant mix; (10) deuterium-deuterium and deuterium-tritium primary fusion reactions for arbitrary deuterium to tritium fuel ratios; and (11) magnetized alpha-particle fuel heating. We show that this simplified model, with its transparent and accessible physics, can be used to reproduce the general 1D behavior presented throughout the original MagLIF paper [S. A. Slutz et al., Phys. Plasmas 17, 056303 (2010)]. We also discuss some important physics insights gained as a result of developing this model, such as the dependence of radiative loss rates on the radial fraction of the fuel that is preheated.