Flow visualizations, velocity measurements, and surface convection measurements in simulated 20.8-cm Nova box amplifier cavities

Fluid mechanics experiments performed in models of the 20.8-cm nova amplifier lamp and disk cavities are reported. Lamp cavity nitrogen flows are shown, by both flow visualization and velocity measurements, to be acceptably uniform and parallel to the flashlamps. It is shown that the nitrogen flows in the disk cavity are disordered. It is found that even though disk cavity flows are disordered, the simplest of three proposed nitrogen introduction systems for the disk cavity are acceptable, based on convection measurements made at the surfaces of simulated laser disks.