Marangoni Instabilities in Spherical Shells

Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Brunswick NJ

Investigators

Abstract

It is proposed to carry out theoretical research on the solutocapillary driven convection in spherical shells. The problem arises from the accurate manufacturing of laser targets in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and future inertial fusion energy (IFE) targets. To initate fusion, these targets must be very smooth, otherwise Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities may be triggered thus degrades the efficiency of fusion ignition. It has been demonstrated that the bumpiness of the target surface is caused by Marangoni instabilities driven by surface tension dependence on the solute concentration during the manufacturing process. Linear stability analysis will be used to establish the critical condition and to suggest initial conditions for nonlinear analysis. The surface defortmation will be calculated by the nonlinear calculations. Results of the calculations will be compared with the experimental results obtained by General Atomics.