Circuit model for the inverse Z-pinch wire array switch.

Conference · Tue Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 2010

OSTI ID:1020429

Waisman, Eduardo Mario; Cuneo, Michael Edward; Harvey-Thompson, A ^[1]; Lebedev, Sergey V ^[1]

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1. The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW, UK

A 0D circuit code is introduced to study the wire array switch concept introduced in. It has been implemented and researched at Imperial College. An exploding wire array, the switch, is in parallel with the load, an imploding wire array. Most of the current flows in the exploding array until it expands and becomes highly resistive. The 0D code contains simple models of Joule energy deposition and plasma expansion for W and Al wires. The purpose of the device is to produce fast Z-pinch implosion, below 100ns on MAGPIE and the Sandia Z machine. Self and mutual inductances are taken into consideration as well as the rocket model for wire ablation. The switch characteristics of the exploding array are prescribed and tuned up to agree with MAGPIE shots. The dependence of the device on the configuration of the arrays is studied and scaling to ZR conditions is explored.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1020429
• Report Number(s): SAND2010-3999C
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
ABLATION
CONFIGURATION
EXPLODING WIRES
PLASMA
PLASMA EXPANSION
ROCKETS