Optimization of array radius, mass and wire number for tungsten arrays

Conference · Wed Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:330584

Deeney, C; Spielman, R B ^[1]; Peterson, D L ^[2]

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1. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States); and others

On the 7-MA Saturn generator, the authors produced 4-ns duration, 75 TW x-ray power pulses using tungsten wire arrays. The radiated power increased as the wire number increased, as the velocity increased and/or as the wire size decreased. 2-D, 3-T radiation MHD calculations indicated that the wire size decrease could be represented by a decrease in the initial seeding of R-T instabilities. These calculations also showed that the increased collapse velocities result in higher electron temperatures. Initial experiments with 40-mm, 120 and 240 wire arrays on the 18-MA PBFAZ generator have produced 1.85 MJ, 160 TW of x-ray power in a 8.5 ns pulse. In this paper, the authors present the scalings from Saturn to PBFAZ and results from and calculations of a radius scan that will optimize the output power by varying the implosion velocity (hence electron temperature and density) and the electrical coupling to the load.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 330584
• Report Number(s): CONF-970559--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
DESIGN
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
IMPLOSIONS
LONGITUDINAL PINCH
PARTICLE BEAM FUSION ACCELERATOR
PLASMA SIMULATION
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
TUNGSTEN
WIRES
X-RAY SOURCES