Abstract and subjects
Summary form only given. Imploding spherical plasma liners formed by an array of merging supersonic plasma jets are a potential standoff compression driver for magneto-inertial fusion. 1, 2 From 2009-2012, a multi-institutional collaboration led by LANL pursued an integrated theory/modeling and experimental effort aimed at fielding targetless, spherical-plasma-liner formation experiments via the merging of thirty argon plasma jets, to reach 0.1-1 Mbar of peak stagnation pressure with a total (thirty-jet) initial kinetic energy of ~375 kJ. Specific goals included: (i) developing scaling laws for peak achievable pressures as a function of initial plasma jet parameters; (ii) achieving the plasma gun technology to deliver argon plasma jets with the requisite parameters (n≈10 17 cm -3 , V≈50 km/s, mass≈8 mg); (iii) experimentally characterizing single-jet propagation and multiple-jet oblique merging; (iv) exploring 3D effects of discrete merging jets; and (v) fielding thirty-jet spherical implosion experiments. The new Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX) facility was constructed at LANL for this project, and substantial progress was made 3-7 on topics (i)-(iv) before the project was terminated. This presentation reviews, for the first time, the project's research accomplishments, and closes with remarks on the concept's readiness to proceed to thirty-jet spherical plasma liner formation experiments.