The Ranchero explosive pulsed power system

Conference · Mon Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1997

OSTI ID:541869

Goforth, J H; Atchison, W L; Bartram, D E ^[1]

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1. and others

The authors are currently developing a high explosive pulsed power system concept that they call Ranchero. Ranchero systems consist of series-parallel combinations of simultaneously initiated coaxial magnetic flux compression generators, and are intended to operate in the range from 50 MA to a few hundred MA currents. One example of a Ranchero system is shown here. The coaxial modules lend themselves to extracting the current output either from one end or along the generator midplane. They have previously published design considerations related to the different module configurations, and in this paper they concentrate on the system that they will use for their first imploding liner tests. A single module with end output. The module is 1.4-m long and expands the armature by a factor of two to reach the 30-cm OD stator. The first heavy liner implosion experiments will be conducted in the range of 40--50 MA currents. Electrical tests, to date, have employed high explosive (HE) charges 43-cm long. They have performed tests and related 1D MHD calculations at the 45-MA current level with small loads. From these results, they determine that they can deliver currents of approximately 50 MA to loads of 8 nH.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 541869
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--97-2411; CONF-9706113--; ON: DE97008871
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CHEMICAL EXPLOSIVES
DESIGN
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
IMPLOSIONS
LINERS
MAGNETIC COMPRESSION
MAGNETIC FLUX
POWER SUPPLIES
PULSE CIRCUITS