Tungsten Z-Pinch Long Implosions on the Saturn Generator;Physics of Plasmas

摘要

Recent success on the Saturn and Z accelerators at Sandia National Laboratories have demonstrated the ability to scale z-pinch parameters to increasingly larger current pulsed power facilities. Next generation machines will require even larger currents (less than 20 MA), placing further demands on pulsed power technology. To this end, experiments have been carried out on Saturn operating in a long pulse mode, investigating the potential of lower voltages and longer implosion times while still maintaining pinch fidelity. High wire number, 25 mm diameter tungsten arrays were imploded with implosion times ranging from 130 to 240 ns. The results were comparable to those observed in the Saturn short pulse mode, with risetimes on the order of 4.5 to 6.5 ns. Experimental data will be presented, along with two dimensional radiation magnetohydrodynamic simulations used to explain and reproduce the experiment.