Numerical fluid solutions for nonlocal electron transport in hot plasmas: Equivalent diffusion versus nonlocal source

Flux limitation and preheat are important processes in electron transport occurring in laser produced plasmas. The proper calculation of both of these has been a subject receiving much attention over the entire lifetime of the laser fusion project. Where nonlocal transport (instead of simple single flux limit) has been modeled, it has always been with what we denote the equivalent diffusion solution, namely treating the transport as only a diffusion process. We introduce here a new approach called the nonlocal source solution and show it is numerically viable for laser produced plasmas. It turns out that the equivalent diffusion solution generally underestimates preheat. Furthermore, the advance of the temperature front, and especially the preheat, can be held up by artificial ‘thermal barriers’. The nonlocal source method of solution, on the other hand more accurately describes preheat and can stably calculate the solution for the temperature even if the heat flux is up the gradient.