Collaboration is an increasingly important aspect of magnetic fusion energy research. With the increased size and cost of experiments needed to approach reactor conditions, the numbers being constructed has become limited. In order to satisfy the desire for many groups to conduct research on these facilities, we have come to rely more heavily on collaborations. Fortunately, at the same time, development of high performance computers and fast and reliable wide area networks has provided technological solutions necessary to support the increasingly distributed work force without the need for relocation of entire research staffs. Development of collaboratories, collaborative or virtual laboratories, is intended to provide the capability needed to interact from afar with colleagues at multiple sites. These technologies are useful to groups interacting remotely during experimental operations as well as to those involved in the development of analysis codes and large scale simulations The term ``collaboratory`` refers to a center without walls in which researchers can perform their studies without regard to geographical location - interacting with colleagues, accessing instrumentation, sharing data and computational resources, and accessing information from digital libraries [1],[2]. While it is widely recognized that remote collaboration is not a universal replacement for personal contact, it does …

An improved understanding of strongly-driven laser plasma coupling is important for optimal use of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) for both inertial fusion and for a variety of advanced applications. Such applications range from high energy x- ray sources and high temperature hohlraums to fast ignition and laser radiography. We discuss a novel model for the scaling of strongly-driven stimulated Brillouin and Raman scattering. This model postulates an intensity dependent correlation length associated with spatial incoherence due to filamentation and stimulated forward scattering. We first motivate the model and then relate it to a variety of experiments. Particular attention is paid to high temperature hohlraum experiments, which exhibited low to modest stimulated Brillouin scattering even though this instability was strongly driven. We also briefly discuss the strongly nonlinear interaction physics for efficient generation of high energy electrons either _ by irradiating a large plasma with near quarter-critical density or by irradiating overdense targets with ultra intense laser

As part of efforts to develop a three-dimensional failure model for composites, a study of failure and fatigue due to combined interlaminar stresses was conducted. The combined stresses were generated using a hollow cylindrical specimen, which was subjected to normal compression and torsion. For both glass and carbon fiber composites, normal compression resulted in a significant enhancement in the interlaminar shear stress and strain at failure. Under moderate compression levels, the failure mode transitioned from elastic to plastic. The observed failure envelope could not be adequately captured using common ply- level failure models. Alternate modeling approaches were examined and it was found that a pressure-dependent failure criterion was required to reproduce the experimental results. The magnitude of the pressure-dependent terms of this model was found to be material dependent. The interlaminar shear fatigue behavior of a carbon/epoxy system was also studied using the cylindrical specimen. Preliminary results indicate that a single S/N curve which is normalized for interlaminar shear strength may be able to reproduce the effects of both temperature and out-of-plane compression on fatigue life. The results demonstrate that there are significant gains to be made in improving interlaminar strengths of composite structures by applying out-of-plane compression. This effect …

We use a model for negative central shear (NCS) heat transport which has a parametric dependence on the plasma conditions with a transport barrier dependence on the minimum of the safety factor profile, 4, qualitatively consistant with experimental observations. Our intention is not to do a detailed investigation of transport models but rather to provide a reasonable model of heat conductivity to be able to simulate effects of electron cyclotron heating (ECH) and current drive (ECCD) on confinement in NCS configurations. We adjust free parameters (c, cl and c2) in the model to obtain a reasonable representation of the temporal evolution of electron and ion temperature profiles consistent with those measured in selected DIII-D shots. In all cases, we use the measured density profiles rather than self- consistently solve for particle sources and particle transport at this time In these results, we employ a simple model for the ECH power deposition by providing an externally supplied heat source for the electrons. The heating deposition location and profile are specified as a function of the toroidal flux coordinate to allow us to independently vary the heating dynamics For the results shown here, we assume a Gaussian profile, typically using a width …