Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Design of multiple-shell gas nozzles for refurbished Z.

Conference ·
OSTI ID:1020478

This paper presents initial designs of multiple-shell gas puff imploding loads for the refurbished Z generator. The nozzle has three independent drivers for three independent plena. The outer and middle plena may be charged to 250psia whilst the central jet can be charged to 1000psia. 8-cm and 12-cm outer diameter nozzles have been built and tested on the bench. The unique valve design provides a very fast opening, hence the amount of stray gas outside the core nozzle flow is minimized. A similar 8-cm nozzle was characterized earlier using a fiber optic interferometer, but at lower pressures and without the central jet. Those data have been scaled to the higher pressures required for refurbished Z and used to estimate performance. The use of three independent plena allows variation of the pressure (hence mass distribution) in the nozzle flow, allowing optimization of implosion stability and the on-axis mass that most contributes to K-shell emission. Varying the outer/middle mass ratios influences the implosion time and should affect the details of the assembly on axis as well as the radiation physics. Varying the central jet pressure will have a minor effect on implosion dynamics, but a strong effect on pinch conditions and radiation physics. Optimum mass distributions for planned initial Ar shots on refurbished Z are described. Additional interferometer data including the central jet and at higher pressures will also be presented.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Laboratories
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
1020478
Report Number(s):
SAND2010-4160C
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

First Argon Gas Puff Experiments With 500 ns Implosion Time On Sphinx Driver
Journal Article · Tue Jan 20 23:00:00 EST 2009 · AIP Conference Proceedings · OSTI ID:21255350

High Yield Argon Z-pinch Results with a Large Diameter Nozzle
Journal Article · Wed Jan 04 23:00:00 EST 2006 · AIP Conference Proceedings · OSTI ID:20729242

Neutron production in deuterium gas-puff implosions on the refurbished Z accelerator.
Conference · Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · OSTI ID:1020378