Shock compression experimental capabilities of the Atlas facility
Atlas is a high-energy pulsed-power facility under construction at Los Alamos National Laboratory. When completed in late 2000, Atlas will provide a laboratory environment to perform shock compression experiments in regimes presently unattainable by other methods. The high-energy-density environment on Atlas will be produced by the rapid ({approximately}4{micro}s) implosion of a 20--40 gram, {approximately}4cm radius, 4 cm length cylindrical aluminum or aluminum/high-Z composite liner, driven by a fast current pulse of {approximately}32 MA from a 24 MJ capacitor bank. Implosion velocities up to 20 km/s are predicted, allowing Hugoniot experiments to {approximately}20 Mbar and quasi-adiabatic compression to several Mbar. However, many issues face scientist in performing such experiments, including how to diagnose conditions inside the imploding liner, how to correct results for distortions and density gradients created by the cylindrical geometry and magnetic drive, and how to prevent geometric distortions and instabilities from degrading results. In this paper, liner performance is predicted for a shock compression experiment utilizing 1-D MHD simulations, and the effect of gradients in density, pressure, and velocity in the impactor prior to collision are discussed.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 757438
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-99-4518; TRN: AH200022%%138
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: American Physical Society Conference on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter, Snowbird, UT (US), 06/27/1999--07/02/1999; Other Information: PBD: 27 Jun 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
SHOCK WAVES
COMPRESSION
TEST FACILITIES
HYDRODYNAMICS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
EXPERIMENT PLANNING
CAPACITIVE ENERGY STORAGE EQUIPMENT
LINERS
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
USES