Adiabatic plasma heating and fusion-energy production by a compressible fast liner

Adiabatic plasma heating by the implosion of a compressible, cylindrical, end-plugged liner is studied by means of an approximate analytical model and by a computer code that employs sophisticated equation-of-state tables for the metal liner. The model contains cylindrical convergence effects and an approximate but realistic equation-of-state. Analytic expressions are derived for the pressure profile in the liner, for the internal energy of the liner, for the maximized fusion energy output of the enclosed D-T plasma, for the corresponding optimized initial conditions, and for the resulting peak pressure, final radius and thickness, and burn time. In this idealized model that ignores losses, energy transfer efficiencies (liner to plasma) of 70% are found, and a gain of 4 (ratio of fusion energy to liner energy) can occur with an initial liner energy of 300 MJ/m. Finally, losses from the plasma are briefly discussed.