Magnetostatic and magnetohydrodynamic modeling of planar wire arrays
- Department of Physics, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557 (United States)
- Plasma Physics Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. 20375 (United States)
- Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185 (United States)
For the past 2 years the planar wire array loads have proven their ability to create powerful x-ray radiation sources at the pulsed power facilities with the current level ranging from 1 to 3 MA. Several key features of the implosion and ablation dynamics of the planar wire arrays distinguish them from the wire arrays of the conventional cylindrical design. The uneven current partition through the array wires in planar geometry results in a significant difference between the ablation rates of the outermost and the innermost array wires. This difference is even higher in a double row planar array geometry. According to the three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations the effect of the delayed ablation of the inner array wires can result in effective mitigation of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability modes. The high number (200-300) of wires in a cylindrical array is preferable to ensure fine azimuthal symmetry of an array implosion. However this requirement is not a great concern for the planar wire array loads, which implode along the plane of wires. Hence, the low-wire-number planar array loads are naturally optimized for the Z-pinch experiments at short pulse (100 ns) 1 MA facilities. The application of planar wire array loads at high current accelerators is attractive for the purposes of the inertial confinement fusion because of the relative compactness of these loads and their potential for radiation pulse shaping.
- OSTI ID:
- 21120311
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 15, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2918667; (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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