Title :
Accelerated evaporative drying of RF foam for ICF target fabrication
Author :
Scott, S.-J. ; Harding, D.R.
Author_Institution :
Lab. for Laser Energetics, Univ. of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
Abstract :
An evaporative drying process is being developed to remove the residual fluid phase from resorcinol formaldehyde (RF) foam shells once they are fully polymerized. This development is part of a microfluidic “lab-on-a-chip” approach for the mass production of inertial fusion energy (IFE) targets. The most-promising prospect for accelerating air drying to less than 24 h is to use a low surface-tension fluid (water containing a surfactant, or as alcohol) at an elevated temperature (50°C) while maintaining the foam structure under a tensile load to counteract the induced capillary forces.
Keywords :
fusion reactor targets; plasma inertial confinement; plasma materials processing; polymer foams; surface tension; ICF target fabrication; RF foam accelerated evaporative drying; air drying acceleration; alcohol; induced capillary forces; inertial fusion energy targets; low surface-tension fluid; microfluidic lab-on-a-chip approach; residual fluid phase; resorcinol formaldehyde foam shells; water surfactant; Radio frequency; Reservoirs; Solids; Solvents; Surface tension; Water; ICF; IFE; evaporative drying; formaldehyde; resorcinol; target;
Conference_Titel :
Fusion Engineering (SOFE), 2013 IEEE 25th Symposium on
Conference_Location :
San Francisco, CA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4799-0169-2
DOI :
10.1109/SOFE.2013.6635487
