BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN PRODID:UW-Madison-Physics-Events BEGIN:VEVENT SEQUENCE:3 UID:UW-Physics-Event-8635 DTSTART:20240226T180000Z DTEND:20240226T191500Z DTSTAMP:20260413T223336Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240222T185002Z LOCATION:1227 Engineering Hall SUMMARY:"From the laboratory to astrophysics: the Rayleigh-Taylor inst ability"\, Plasma Physics (Physics/ECE/NE 922) Seminar\, Dr. Bhuvana S rinivasan\, Director\, PLASMAWISE Laboratory - Univ of Washington DESCRIPTION:Recent breakthroughs in inertial confinement fusion have demonstrated fusion ignition\, but significant physics and engineerin g challenges remain to truly achieve energy breakeven. Hydrodynamic mi x at material interfaces is known to be detrimental for laser-driven a nd pulsed-power-driven inertial confinement fusion implosions. Hence\ , mitigation of mix remains an open challenge. The Rayleigh-Taylor ins tability (RTI)\, which occurs when the interface between two fluids w ith different densities is accelerated\, has been known to play a crit ical role in producing hydrodynamic mix at material interfaces. The RT I is an ubiquitous instability and RTI-like features and growth have b een noted in astrophysical observations. The presence of magnetic fie lds\, plasma transport\, and kinetic effects can significantly alter the evolution of the RTI\, which may explain discrepancies between num erical simulations and observations. These will be discussed in this t alk. Other high-energy-density research relevant to pulsed-power implo sions such as the growth of the electrothermal instability that can se ed the late-time RTI will be discussed briefly. There is a need for h igh-fidelity computational models to study high-energy-density plasma s. A hierarchy of models\, ranging from magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) to f ully kinetic\, are developed and applied across a wide range of parame ter regimes in the PLASMAWISE laboratory at the University of Washingt on.
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\nBio: \nBhuvana Srinivasan is an Associate Prof essor in the William E. Boeing Department of Aeronautics and Astronaut ics at the University of Washington. Prior to this appointment\, she w as an Associate Professor in the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerosp ace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech where she developed a progr am in computational plasma physics. Prior to joining Virginia Tech\, s he was a postdoc and a scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory . She is the director of the PLASMAWISE Laboratory (previously the Pla sma Dynamics Computational Laboratory at Virginia Tech). The primary r esearch areas in her group include plasma-material interactions in thr usters and fusion devices\, instabilities in high-energy-density fusio n and astrophysical plasmas\, ionospheric plasma instabilities\, and n umerical algorithm development for fluid and kinetic models. She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award\, the 2017 Outstanding Assistant Pro fessor award and the 2019 Faculty Fellow awarded by the Dean of the Co llege of Engineering at Virginia Tech. She was appointed to the Endowe d Crofton Faculty Fellowship in Engineering from 2021-2023. She is a m ember of the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee to the U.S. Dep artment of Energy and serves on the Executive Committee for the Americ an Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics. She is also active in Diversity\, Equity\, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts as the past Chair of the DEI committee in the aerospace and ocean engineering department at Virginia Tech\, as a member of the Committee on Women+ in Plasma Phys ics\, and through her involvement with the Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity at Virginia Tech. URL:https://www.physics.wisc.edu/events/?id=8635 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR