Overview of the Pegasus-II experimental program
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States); and others
Pegasus-II is a pulsed power facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory which is used to conduct a variety of experiments in the high energy density regime, with applications to the physics of nuclear weapons as well as basic science. The chief mission of the facility is the systematic investigation of hydrodynamic physics issues through the use of a magnetically-driven, cylindrical imploding liner. At 4.3-MJ of stored energy, Pegasus-II is one of the largest capacitor-bank facilities in the world. Peak currents as high as 12 MA have been produced with a quarter-cycle time of 6--8 {micro}s. The active portion of the standardized aluminum liner is a 3.2-g right hollow cylinder designed such that the inner surface of the liner remains at solid aluminum density during the course of the experiment. The run-in time for a typical experiment is {approximately}10 {micro}s. For some experiments, a diagnostic package is placed inside the liner to analyze physical processes associated with multi-microsecond convergent implosions of macroscopic solid shells. These campaigns include the study of instability growth rates, hydrodynamic bounce and mix, and mechanical heating associated with high strain and strain rate. Other experimental studies, in particular those examining the shock /production of ejecta and shock-driven hydrodynamic vortex formation and compression, have involved the use of an internal target package. By varying the Pegasus-II operating conditions, the impact of the liner on an internal target of a few cm diameter results in shock pressures of 100kBar--1MBar with liner velocities of 3 mm/{micro}s--10 mm/{micro}s. Some experiments have been conducted in the regime where strength of materials affects the hydrodynamical behavior of the system, while for other target designs, efforts have been made to minimize the role of material strength. Hydrodynamic experiments on Pegasus-II uniquely combine convergent geometry with axial diagnostic access of macroscopic assemblies in a laboratory environment. A summary of the data obtained in several experimental campaigns performed to date will be presented.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 346859
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-980601-; TRN: IM9920%%76
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 25. international conference on plasma science, Raleigh, NC (United States), 1-4 Jun 1998; Other Information: PBD: 1998; Related Information: Is Part Of IEEE conference record -- Abstracts. 1998 IEEE international conference on plasma science; PB: 343 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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