Abatement of shocks during disruption of porous thick-liquid blankets in HYLIFE-type inertial fusion chambers

The dispersion and control of liquid kinetic energy and momentum are a major issue after the explosion of targets in an inertial fusion energy (IFE) thick-liquid chamber. For HYLIFE-type IFE chambers the desired repetition rate for shots varies from 5 to 10 Hz—a rate much too fast for natural gravity clearing of liquid debris. The impulse load delivered by a single shot generates enough kinetic energy in disrupted liquid material to do significant damage to surrounding solid structures. However, carefully designed jet arrays with regular void spacing can diffuse and dissipate kinetic energy that could damage adjacent structures, and rapidly moving, oscillating jets can dynamically clear the chamber center. A brief theoretical and mathematical background is given for this method of shock abatement, using the current Berkeley jet array experiment as a representative geometry.