External Magnetic Field Effects on Ablation of Current-Driven Foils Using an Extended Magnetohydrodynamics Simulation

Journal Article · Fri Jun 22 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/TPS.2018.2845341· OSTI ID:1499953

Byvank, Tom  ^[1]; Hamlin, Nathaniel ^[1]; Atoyan, Levon  ^[1]; Seyler, Charles E. ^[1]; Kusse, Bruce R.  ^[1]

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1. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). Lab. of Plasma Studies

We numerically model the ablation process of a 25-μm-thick aluminum foil driven by a pulsed-power machine that provides a 1-MA peak current in a 100-ns zero-to-peak rise time. The extended magnetohydrodynamics simulation is a discontinuous Galerkin code with Cartesian coordinates in 3-D and with 25-μm spatial resolution. We investigate here the influence of an external magnetic field normal to the foil surface, B _z . During the foil ablation, B _z = 1 T causes more nonuniform distributions of density and current compared to B _z = 0 T. B _z = 4 T delays the generation of surface plasma relative to the 0- and 1-T cases. The understanding of a material's ablation as it undergoes transition from the solid to plasma phases requires detailed knowledge of a material's equation of state and conductivity. This paper of warm dense matter and how instabilities propagate from a solid material to plasma motivates improvements to both numerical simulations and experimental diagnostics.

• Research Organization: Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Grant/Contract Number: NA0003764; NA0001836; PHY-1102471
• OSTI ID: 1499953
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. 46, Issue 11; ISSN 0093-3813
• Publisher: IEEE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ablation
aluminum
magnetic field effects
magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)
pulse power systems