Estimates of dwell time for plasma liner driven magneto-inertial fusion using an analytic self-similar converging shock model

Summary form only given. Plasma liner driven magnetoinertial fusion (PLMIF) is an emerging innovative fusion energy concept that utilizes an imploding plasma liner to shock heat and confine a magnetized target. We used the exact solution to the self- similar converging shock model to show that the dwell time for the compressed target may be considerably longer than recent theoretical results suggest. The dwell time was found to be determined by the sum of the outgoing shock and rarefaction times through the plasma liner. For typical PLMIF conditions the dwell time was of the order of 1 mus. We show that the engineering gain, the total energy extracted for electricity (fusion plus expanded liner energy) divided by the energy required to produce the liner, exceeds 1.0 for a wide range of the liner thickness and specific heat ratio. The energy recovery from charged particles is of the same order as the thermal energy recovery from the neutrons, while the recovery of the expanded liner contributes between 5 to 20%.