Conductor Energy Losses at 10 MA/cm on Z
- Sandia National Laboratories
Very high current generators are being developed to drive compact loads leading to conductors carrying very high current densities. Losses in conductors include resistive, magnetic field diffusion, pdV work, and material motion contributions. We have designed and executed experiments on Sandia's 100-ns rise time, 20- MA Z accelerator to quantify those losses at current densities reaching 10 MA/cm. In these experiments we delivered nearly 20 MA to both high-current density and low-current density short circuit loads. We used B-dot probes and VISAR techniques to measure the magnetic field near the load. A reduction in the delivered current of ~ 15% over the 20-MA peak current prediction made without resistive losses was observed. Comparisons of these data with radiation magneto-hydrodynamics codes (RMHD) will be presented. Implications on the efficiency of next generation pulsed power drivers will be discussed.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 8474
- Report Number(s):
- SAND99-1667C; ON: DE00008474
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
MAIZE: a 1 MA LTD-Driven Z-Pinch at The University of Michigan
Energy losses in conductors carrying very high currents