Plastic ablator and hydrodynamic instabilities: A first-principles set of microscopic coefficients

We have performed orbital-free and quantum molecular dynamics simulations on plastic ablator along two isochores, namely 7 and 9 g cm${}^{-3}$, from 5 to 40 eV. These thermodynamic conditions correspond to those encountered during inertial confinement fusion capsule implosion when hydrodynamic instabilities can take place. The coupling between orbital-free and quantum approaches allowed us to compute an exhaustive set of microscopic coefficients, i.e., equation-of-state, ionic diffusion coefficients, thermal and electrical conductivities, spanning phenomena that can mitigate the growth of classical Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Comparisons to widely used models in hydrodynamics codes are developed.

Figure 1

Pressure versus temperature along the two isochores obtained from quantum and orbital-free simulations as well as QEOS model.

Figure 2

Shear viscosity obtained from the ofmd simulations and the ocp fit from Ref. [34] using the effective coupling constant ${\Gamma }_2^{☆}$ of Table .

Figure 3

Thermal conductivities along the 7 g cm${}^{-3}$ isochore from QMD simulations and various models coupled to mixing rules.

Figure 4

Thermal conductivities along the 9 g cm${}^{-3}$ isochore from QMD simulations and various models coupled to mixing rules.