Observation of persistent species temperature separation in inertial confinement fusion mixtures.

The injection and mixing of contaminant mass into the fuel in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosions is a primary factor preventing ignition. ICF experiments have recently achieved an alpha-heating regime, in which fusion self-heating is the dominant source of yield, by reducing the susceptibility of implosions to instabilities that inject this mass. We report the results of unique separated reactants implosion experiments studying pre-mixed contaminant as well as detailed high-resolution three-dimensional simulations that are in good agreement with experiments. At conditions relevant to mixing regions in high-yield implosions, we observe persistent chunks of contaminant that do not achieve thermal equilibrium with the fuel throughout the burn phase. The assumption of thermal equilibrium is made in nearly all computational ICF modeling and methods used to infer levels of contaminant from experiments. We estimate that these methods may underestimate the amount of contaminant by a factor of two or more.

Three-dimensional simulation strategy to determine the effects of turbulent mixing on inertial-confinement-fusion capsule performance.

In this paper, we present and justify an effective strategy for performing three-dimensional (3D) inertial-confinement-fusion (ICF) capsule simulations. We have evaluated a frequently used strategy in which two-dimensional (2D) simulations are rotated to 3D once sufficient relevant 2D flow physics has been captured and fine resolution requirements can be restricted to relatively small regions. This addresses situations typical of ICF capsules which are otherwise prohibitively intensive computationally. We tested this approach for our previously reported fully 3D simulations of laser-driven reshock experiments where we can use the available 3D data as reference. Our studies indicate that simulations that begin as purely 2D lead to significant underprediction of mixing and turbulent kinetic energy production at later time when compared to the fully 3D simulations. If, however, additional suitable nonuniform perturbations are applied at the time of rotation to 3D, we show that one can obtain good agreement with the purely 3D simulation data, as measured by vorticity distributions as well as integrated mixing and turbulent kinetic energy measurements. Next, we present results of simulations of a simple OMEGA-type ICF capsule using the developed strategy. These simulations are in good agreement with available experimental data and suggest that the dominant mechanism for yield degradation in ICF implosions is hydrodynamic instability growth seeded by long-wavelength surface defects. This effect is compounded by drive asymmetries and amplified by repeated shock interactions with an increasingly distorted shell, which results in further yield reduction. Our simulations are performed with and without drive asymmetries in order to compare the importance of these effects to those of surface defects; our simulations indicate that long-wavelength surface defects degrade yield by approximately 60% and short-wavelength drive asymmetry degrades yield by a further 30%.

Estimating the effective Reynolds number in implicit large-eddy simulation.

In implicit large-eddy simulation (ILES), energy-containing large scales are resolved, and physics capturing numerics are used to spatially filter out unresolved scales and to implicitly model subgrid scale effects. From an applied perspective, it is highly desirable to estimate a characteristic Reynolds number (Re)-and therefore a relevant effective viscosity-so that the impact of resolution on predicted flow quantities and their macroscopic convergence can usefully be characterized. We argue in favor of obtaining robust Re estimates away from the smallest scales of the simulated flow-where numerically controlled dissipation takes place and propose a theoretical basis and framework to determine such measures. ILES examples include forced turbulence as a steady flow case, the Taylor-Green vortex to address transition and decaying turbulence, and simulations of a laser-driven reshock experiment illustrating a fairly complex turbulence problem of current practical interest.

Viscosity of bacterial suspensions: hydrodynamic interactions and self-induced noise.

The viscosity of a suspension of swimming bacteria is investigated analytically and numerically. We propose a simple model that allows for efficient computation for a large number of bacteria. Our calculations show that long-range hydrodynamic interactions, intrinsic to self-locomoting objects in a viscous fluid, result in a dramatic reduction of the effective viscosity. In agreement with experiments on suspensions of Bacillus subtilis, we show that the viscosity reduction is related to the onset of large-scale collective motion due to interactions between the swimmers. The simulations reveal that the viscosity reduction occurs only for relatively low concentrations of swimmers: Further increases of the concentration yield an increase of the viscosity. We derive an explicit asymptotic formula for the effective viscosity in terms of known physical parameters and show that hydrodynamic interactions are manifested as self-induced noise in the absence of any explicit stochasticity in the system.

Three-dimensional model for the effective viscosity of bacterial suspensions.

We derive the effective viscosity of dilute suspensions of swimming bacteria from the microscopic details of the interaction of an elongated body with the background flow. An individual bacterium propels itself forward by rotating its flagella and reorients itself randomly by tumbling. Due to the bacterium's asymmetric shape, interactions with a prescribed generic (such as planar shear or straining) background flow cause the bacteria to preferentially align in directions in which self-propulsion produces a significant reduction in the effective viscosity, in agreement with recent experiments on suspensions of Bacillus subtilis.

Effective viscosity of dilute bacterial suspensions: a two-dimensional model.

Suspensions of self-propelled particles are studied in the framework of two-dimensional (2D) Stokesean hydrodynamics. A formula is obtained for the effective viscosity of such suspensions in the limit of small concentrations. This formula includes the two terms that are found in the 2D version of Einstein's classical result for passive suspensions. To this, the main result of the paper is added, an additional term due to self-propulsion which depends on the physical and geometric properties of the active suspension. This term explains the experimental observation of a decrease in effective viscosity in active suspensions.