Computational Simulations of Plasma Flow Switches and Imploding Loads

Abstract

The Procyon system in the Los Alamos Trailmaster foil implosion project is intended to produce soft x-ray radiation by delivering about 1 MJ of kinetic energy to an imploding plasma liner. The final switching stage of this system will be a Plasma Flow Switch (PFS) which delivers current to the cylindrical foil load. 1-D and 2-D simulations are now being conducted to examine: the initiation of the PFS plasma; the dynamics of the PFS and its switching efficiency; the load implosion and resulting radiation output. Considered here, for the PFS and imploding load, are the effects of electrode walls, perturbations, and radiation. Comparisons with experiments (using the 1.5 MJ Pegasus capacitor bank) are also described.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1991
Accession Number
ADA633461

Entities

People

  • Arthur E. Greene
  • D. L. Peterson
  • J. H. Brownell
  • N. F. Roderick
  • R. L. Bowers

Organizations

  • Los Alamos National Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Electrodes
  • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Energy
  • Implosions
  • Instability
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Magnetic Flux
  • Magnetic Forces
  • Materials
  • Nuclear Engineering
  • Perturbations
  • Radiation
  • Simulations
  • Switches
  • Switching
  • Two Dimensional
  • X Rays

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.