Plasma flow switch experiments on the Pegasus facility

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/PPC.1991.733358· OSTI ID:5544131

Cochrane, Jr, J C; Anderson, B; Bartsch, R R; Bowers, R; Findley, C; Greene, A; Kruse, H; Oona, H; Parker, J V; Peterson, D; Sandoval, G ^[1]; Lee, P H.Y. ^[2]; Turchi, P ^[3]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
2. TRW, Inc., Redondo Beach, CA (USA)
3. Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (USA)

Plasma flow switch experiments conducted on Pegasus have shown that a conducting layer of plasma shunts the load slot preventing efficient switching of current to the load. This effect is seen computationally. The magnitude of the effect depends on the specific parameters of the switch plasma and current level. Computations have also shown that a plasma boundary layer trap'' would effectively remove enough plasma from the inner conductor of the power flow channel so that efficient switching would occur. This plasma trap has been successfully demonstrated when used with a static load. It has not yet been tested with an imploding load. 3 refs., 8 figs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 5544131
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-91-1983; CONF-910640-23; ON: DE91014744
• Resource Relation: Conference: 8. IEEE pulsed power conference, San Diego, CA (United States), 17-19 Jun 1991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

07 ISOTOPES AND RADIATION SOURCES
42 ENGINEERING
PLASMA SWITCHES
PERFORMANCE
BOUNDARY LAYERS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DESIGN
DIMENSIONS
IMPLOSIONS
RADIATION SOURCES
TESTING
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
LAYERS
SIMULATION
SWITCHES
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