M. J. Clauser

Self‐similar power‐driven expansion into vacuum

Planar, power‐driven expansion into a vacuum is found to be self‐similar for a power‐law driving source for the two ideal cases of a thick slab and a thin foil. For the thick slab expansion, an asymptotic solution for the far‐blowoff region is obtained and a numerical solution is present for the rest of the expansion wave. For the thin foil expansion, an analytical solution is obtained. In both cases, the solutions exhibit an unbounded flow field with velocities tending to infinity as a consequence of the continuum assumption, a finite temperature limit for the far‐blowoff material, and density profiles that decrease as a Gaussian in the far expanded material.

Pulsed power applications to intense neutron source development

Abstract The use of conventional and near term pulsed power technology to generate intense fluxes of neutrons for use in fusion reactor materials studies is discussed. Two types of neutron production mechanism are considered. For the immediate future, the use of single pulse or high rep rate intense ion beam sources is proposed to provide high fluxes of neutrons from beam-target interactions. Farther along in time, the use of intense ion or electron beams to initiate inertially confined fusion reactions will lead to intense sources of thermonuclear neutrons.