Constraining Multiphysics codes from ambient to warm dense matter using new radiation driven expansion data*

In order to ensure radiation hydrodynamic simulations are predictive, codes must be benchmarked against well characterized experimental data, preferably in the regime future experiments will performed.  Alegra is a multiphysics code used to design many different experiments on Sandia’s Z machine.  Data from a new platform on Z where the time-dependent expansion of an x-ray heated, tamped foil is measured via x-ray radiography is used to constrain Alegra’s IMC radiation hydrodynamics capability from solid, ambient conditions to the warm dense matter regime.