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Feasibility Study of the Standing Accretion Shock Instability Experiment at the National Ignition Facility

The primary hydrodynamic flow feature of early explosion phases of a core-collapse supernova is a spherical shock. This shock is born deep in the central regions of the collapsing stellar core, stalls shortly afterward, and in case of a successful explosion is revived and becomes the supernova shock. The revival process involves a standing accretion shock instability, SASI. This shock instability is considered the key processes aiding the core-collapse supernova (ccSN) explosion. The aim of our study is to identify feasible conditions and parameters for an experimental system that is able to capture the essential characteristics of SASI. We use analytic methods and high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations in multidimensions to investigate a possible experimental design on the National Ignition Facility. The experimental configuration involves a steady, spherical shock. We explore a viable region of parameters and obtain limits on the shocked flow geometry. We study the stability properties of the shock and its post-shock region. We discuss key differences between the experimental setup and astrophysical environment. The obtained flowfield closely resembles conveging nozzle flow. The post-shock region, in contrast to the supernova setting, is found to be stably stratified and insensitive to perturbations upstream of the shock. We conclude that it is not possible to capture the characteristics of the supernova SASI for the converging shocked flow configuration considered here. However, such configuration offers a very stable setting for precision studies of shocked, dense, high temperature plasmas requiring finely-controlled conditions. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Scientiļ¬C Computing in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester, 2011. / October 21, 2011. / hydrodynamics, laboratory astrophysics, shockwaves, supernovae / Includes bibliographical references. / Tomasz Plewa, Professor Directing Thesis; Gordon Erlebacher, Committee Member; Michael Navon, Committee Member.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_182902
ContributorsHandy, Tim A. (authoraut), Plewa, Tomasz (professor directing thesis), Erlebacher, Gordon (committee member), Navon, Michael (committee member), Department of Scientific Computing (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution)
PublisherFlorida State University, Florida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
LanguageEnglish, English
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, text
Format1 online resource, computer, application/pdf
RightsThis Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them.

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