A COMPARISON OF KINETIC AND MULTIFLUID SIMULATIONS OF LASER-PRODUCED COLLIDING PLASMAS

The amount of interpenetration and stagnation in counterstreaming lase r-produced plasmas is investigated via a kinetic model and a multiflui d model in one-dimensional planar geometry. Each of these models can e volve multiple ion species in the self-consistent electrostatic field with Coulomb collisional interaction. The two approaches are applied t o various colliding plasma systems, ranging from simple homogeneous sl owing-down and temperature-equilibration problems to colliding plasmas characteristic of laser irradiated thin foils and thick disks. In par ticular, direct comparisons are made between the kinetic formulation a nd the multifluid model with various approximations for the multifluid collisional coupling coefficients. (C) 1995 American Institute of Phy sics.