Kinetic simulations of gas breakdown in the dense plasma focus

Bennett, N.; Blasco, M.; Breeding, K.; DiPuccio, V.; Gall, B.; Garcia, M.; Gardner, S.; Gatling, J.; Hagen, E. C.; Luttman, A.; Meehan, B. T.; Molnar, S.; O'Brien, R.; Ormond, E.; Robbins, L.; Savage, M.; Sipe, N.; Welch, D. R.

doi:10.1063/1.4985313

Title: Kinetic simulations of gas breakdown in the dense plasma focus

Journal Article · Fri Jun 09 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4985313· OSTI ID:1363871

^[1]; Blasco, M. ^[1]; Breeding, K. ^[1]; DiPuccio, V. ^[1]; Gall, B. ^[1]; Garcia, M. ^[2]; Gardner, S. ^[1]; Gatling, J. ^[1]; Hagen, E. C. ^[1]; Luttman, A. ^[1]; Meehan, B. T. ^[1]; Molnar, S. ^[1]; O'Brien, R. ^[1];

^[2]; Robbins, L. ^[1]; Savage, M. ^[2]; Sipe, N. ^[1]; Welch, D. R. ^[3]

National Security Technologies, LLC. (NSTec), Las Vegas, NV (United States)
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Voss Scientific, Inc., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

We describe the first fully-kinetic, collisional, and electromagnetic simulations of the breakdown phase of a MA-scale dense plasma focus and are shown to agree with measured electrical characteristics, including breakdown time. In the model, avalanche ionization is driven by cathode electron emission and this results in incomplete gas breakdown along the insulator. This reinforces the importance of the conditioning process that creates a metallic layer on the insulator surface. The simulations, nonetheless, help explain the relationship between the gas pressure, the insulator length, and the coaxial gap width. In the past, researchers noted three breakdown patterns related to pressure. Simulation and analytic results show that at low pressures, long ionization path lengths lead to volumetric breakdown, while high pressures lead to breakdown across the relatively small coaxial electrode gap. In an intermediate pressure regime, ionization path lengths are comparable to the insulator length which promotes ideal breakdown along the insulator surface.

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Research Organization:: National Security Technologies, LLC. (NSTec), Las Vegas, NV (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25946

OSTI ID:: 1363871

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1366568

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 24, Issue 6; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 4 works

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