Onset of Rayleigh-Bénard convection at fuel-ablator interfaces in inertial confinement fusion simulations
Phys. Rev. E 113, 065201 – Published 2 June, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/tt75-81cy
Abstract
We demonstrate the onset of Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC) near the fuel-ablator interface of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosion simulations for the scenario in which Rayleigh-Taylor or Richtmyer-Meshkov instabilities are suppressed. This convective heating within the cold fuel can degrade the adiabat and therefore performance of ICF implosions even without mixing of fuel and ablator. Our work suggests additional considerations to realize design adiabats in otherwise ideal ICF implosions: first, via control of the temperature differences between ablator and fuel and, second, control of the fuel acceleration which we show has a complex interplay with the RBC dynamics.
