The Effect of Wire Initiation on Array Dynamics

Journal Article · Thu Jan 05 04:00:00 EST 2006 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2159309· OSTI ID:20729306

Bland, S N; Lebedev, S V; Hall, G N; Ampleford, D J; Bott, S C; Chittenden, J P; Haines, M G; Rapley, J ^[1]; Mitchell, I H; Gomez, J A ^[2]; Hammer, D A; Pikuz, S A; Shelkovenko, T A ^[3]

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1. Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London, SW7 2BZ (United Kingdom)
2. Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (Chile)
3. Laboratory of plasma studies, Cornell University, Ithaca NY (United States)

The evolution of an array - the gradual ablation of wire cores into coronal plasma followed by an implosion that snowploughs this coronal plasma to the axis - has been the subject of much scrutiny. Here we present measurements of the formation and dynamics of the snowplough sheath in an array, observe how the snowplough stagnates on axis and investigate how this is related to X-ray emission. Introducing a reversing in the direction of the radial electric field at the wires of an array changed the size of the wire cores produced during initiation of the array. With a smaller than normal core size, the rate of ablation at the wires was reduced, and the dependence of implosion and X-ray production on ablation could be explored.

• OSTI ID: 20729306
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 808; ISSN APCPCS; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ABLATION
ELECTRIC FIELDS
EMISSION
EXPLODING WIRES
IMPLOSIONS
LINEAR Z PINCH DEVICES
LONGITUDINAL PINCH
PLASMA
PLASMA PRODUCTION
X RADIATION