MACH2 modeling of LANL plasma-flow-switch experiments
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
The plasma-flow opening-switch (PFS) is being developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory as part of the Athena Program. The present goal is to switch 10--20 MA of current into a cylindrical-foil implosion load in 300--400 ns. Primary drivers currently in use include the Pegasus-II capacitor bank which delivers 8--10 MA to the PFS in 3--4 {mu}s and the Procyon explosively-driven flux-compression generator which delivers 15--18 MA in 2--3 {mu}s. A series of experiments using Pegasus-II and Procyon have characterized the PFS performance for a variety of experimental conditions. Issues examined with Pegasus-II include switch-mass (50-mg vs. 100-mg), switch fabrication (wire-array vs. graded-thickness-foil), current level (7 MA vs. 10 MA), presence or absence of a plasma trap, and static load vs. implosion load. Procyon has been used to characterize a PFS with a 1/r aerial-mass-density profile (as opposed to the Pegasus-II 1/r{sup 2} profile). The MACH2 two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic code has been used to model these experiments and comparison of simulation data to the experimental data has been made. This includes direct comparison of data from an array of B-dot probes present on all tests (19--23 probes), direct comparison of x-ray yield and power for those tests with implosion loads, and qualitative comparison to framing and streak data. The agreement between simulation data and experimental data is reasonably good.
- OSTI ID:
- 46157
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940604-; ISBN 0-7803-2006-9; TRN: IM9522%%158
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 1994 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) international conference on plasma science, Santa Fe, NM (United States), 6-8 Jun 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1994; Related Information: Is Part Of IEEE conference record -- Abstracts; PB: 252 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Design and characterization of the Pegasus I plasma flow switch
Modeling of plasma flow switches at low, intermediate and high energies