PhD student at ESRF - studying dynamics of hydrodynamic instabilities for inertial fusion energy

Thesis subject: Quantitative measurements of hydrodynamic instabilities in complex geometries relevant to inertial fusion energy production;

Hydrodynamic instabilities dominate material flow and mix at all scales; understanding their behaviour in complex geometries is vital for many applications, in particular the optimisation of targets that could be used for Inertial Fusion Energy generation. This PhD project targets world-first measurements of the development of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability in dense plasmas and convergent geometries directly relevant to fusion.

The approach will build on the pulsed power platform established at ID19 and its ability to produce arbitrarily shaped shockwaves probed by ID19’s unique phase contrast imaging system. ID19 is a 150 m-long ESRF beamline dedicated to high resolution X-ray imaging (radiography and microtomography) using partially coherent hard X-rays.

The beamline combines a broad range of cutting-edge experimental setups with intense polychromatic illumination for high-speed phase contrast X-ray imaging at high photon energies: perfectly suited for in situ studies of materials, operando processes, and engineering devices, as well as development of new imaging modalities.

The studentship will take advantage of an industrial partnership with First Light Fusion, which includes performing experiments at one of the world’s largest pulsed power systems to explore scaling to fusion conditions.

The studentship has 3 goals and 1 extended goal.

Goal 1 - To use ID19 to provide quantitative measurements of Richtmyer Meshkov Instability (RMI) growth in low density condensed materials and in geometries including cylindrical, parabolic and spherical. To explore the use of new techniques to negate instability growth.

Goal 2 - To extend this work to warm dense matter WDM by utilising a second pulser to generate dense plasma targets via wire/foil explosion. Explore the use of ID24 if required to measure temperature and mixing of these targets.

Goal 3 - To explore how these measurements can be scaled to more energetic systems.

Extended Goal - to also explore the scaling of the Kelvin-Helmholtz in complex geometries

The First 2 Years of the PhD will be spent at Imperial College London, with the last 18 months at ID19, ESRF. The PhD will also use facilities at First Light Fusion to provide scaling information on the instabilities. 

The successful candidate will be enrolled for study towards a PhD degree at Imperial College Londen. The first 2 years of your study will be spent at Imperial College London, the final 18 months at ESRF in Grenoble. 

Further information may be obtained from: Prof. Simon Bland (tel: +44 207 5947650 email:sn.bland@imperial.ac.uk) and Dr Alexander Rack (tel: + +33 476 88 1781)