Hydromagnetic Rayleigh{endash}Taylor instability in high-velocity gas-puff implosions
- Air Force Research Laboratory, Phillips Site, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico87117 (United States)
- Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico (United States)
Experiments using the Saturn pulsed power generator have produced high-velocity z-pinch plasma implosions with velocities over 100 cm/{mu}s using both annular and uniform-fill gas injection initial conditions. Both types of implosion show evidence of the hydromagnetic Rayleigh{endash}Taylor instability with the uniform-fill plasmas producing a more spatially uniform pinch. Two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations including unsteady flow of gas from a nozzle into the diode region have been used to investigate these implosions. The instability develops from the nonuniform gas flow field that forms as the gas expands from the injection nozzle. Instability growth is limited to the narrow unstable region of the current sheath. For the annular puff the unstable region breaks through the inner edge of the annulus increasing nonlinear growth as mass ejected from the bubble regions is not replenished by accretion. This higher growth leads to bubble thinning and disruption producing greater nonuniformity at pinch for the annular puff. The uniform puff provides gas to replenish bubble mass loss until just before pinch resulting in less bubble thinning and a more uniform pinch. {copyright} {ital 1998 American Institute of Physics.}
- OSTI ID:
- 627761
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 5; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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