A practical nonlocal model for electron heat transport in laser plasmas

Abstract

A brief review of nonlocal heat-flow models is presented. Numerical difficulties associated with their implementation, as recently demonstrated by Prasad and Kershaw [Phys. Fluids B 1, 2430 (1989)], are discussed and a simple solution is proposed. A new nonlocal heat-flow formula is developed, based on numerical simulations of the decay of linearized thermal waves, using the electron Fokker–Planck code spark. The formula is tested by modeling the full implosion of a CH shell driven by 351 nm laser irradiation. Results are shown to be in good agreement with spark simulations.