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Title: Wire array z-pinch insights for high X-ray power generation

Conference ·
OSTI ID:307954

The discovery that the use of very large numbers of wires enables high x-ray power to be generated from wire-array z-pinches represents a breakthrough in load design for large pulsed power generators, and has permitted high temperatures to be generated in radiation cavities on Saturn and Z. In this paper, changes in x-ray emission characteristics as a function of wire number, array mass, and load radius, for 20-mm-long aluminum arrays on Saturn that led to these breakthrough hohlraum results, are discussed and compared with a few related emission characteristics of high-wire-number aluminum and tungsten arrays on Z. X-ray measurement comparisons with analytic models and 2-D radiation-magnetohydrodynamic (RMHC) code simulations in the x-y and r-z planes provide confidence in the ability of the models and codes to predict future x-ray performance with very-large-number wire arrays.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-36; AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
307954
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-98-2710; CONF-980603-; ON: DE99001666; TRN: 99:003215
Resource Relation:
Conference: 12. internatinal conference on high power particle beams, Haifa (Israel), 8-12 Jun 1998; Other Information: PBD: [1998]
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English