Abstract
Numerical simulation of the laser ablative impulse generation onto an aluminum target is carried out. The simulated condition is taken from a recent experiment, in which an aluminum foil is irradiated by the laser pulse which is supplied from an Nd:YAG laser; and the time history of the local impulse generated on the aluminum foil is measured by using a velocity interferometer named VISAR (Velocity Interferometer System for Any Reflector). A computational fluid dynamic method is used, which incorporates the physical modeling for laser ablation phenomenon such as the heating of a solid target including melting and evaporating process and the expansion of the vaporized plume into a near vacuum. The calculation can replicate the measured temporal variation of the local impulse by fitting an effective surface reflectivity on the aluminum target.
