Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Physics
Numerical Simulation Of Steady-State Thermal Blooming With Natural Convection, Jeremiah S. Lane, Justin Cook, Martin Richardson, Benjamin F. Akers
Numerical Simulation Of Steady-State Thermal Blooming With Natural Convection, Jeremiah S. Lane, Justin Cook, Martin Richardson, Benjamin F. Akers
Faculty Publications
This work investigates steady-state thermal blooming of a high-energy laser in the presence of laser-driven convection. While thermal blooming has historically been simulated with prescribed fluid velocities, the model introduced here solves for the fluid dynamics along the propagation path using a Boussinesq approximation to the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The resultant temperature fluctuations were coupled to refractive index fluctuations, and the beam propagation was modeled using the paraxial wave equation. Fixed-point methods were used to solve the fluid equations as well as to couple the beam propagation to the steady-state flow. The simulated results are discussed relative to recent experimental …