Ignition capsules with aerogel-supported liquid DT fuel for the National Ignition Facility

For high repetition-rate fusion power plant applications, capsules with aerogel-supported liquid DT fuel can have much reduced fill time compared to beta-layering a solid DT fuel layer. The melting point of liquid DT can be lowered once liquid DT is embedded in an aerogel matrix, and the DT vapor density is consequently closer to the desired density for optimal capsule design requirement. We present design for NIF-scale aerogel-filled capsules based on 1-D and 2-D simulations. An optimal configuration is obtained when the outer radius is increased until the clean fuel fraction is within 65 - 75% at peak velocity. A scan ( in ablator and fuel thickness parameter space) is used to optimize the capsule configurations. The optimized aerogel-filled capsule has good low-mode robustness and acceptable high-mode mix.