One Dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Exploding Foil Opening Switches

Abstract

Exploding foil opening switches are employed at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory on a large, low inductance, capacitor bank in an inductive store configuration to drive fast z-pinch cylindrical liner implosions. An experimental program to evaluate the performance of these opening switches is complemented by a theoretical effort to investigate methods of improving their performance. The magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) plasma simulation code, MAGPIE, has been used to evaluate several different configurations and techniques for improving the performance of these switches. Numerical results are presented for the following configurations : (1) foil in one atmosphere of inert gas, (2) foil in thin polyethylene sandwich, (3) foil in semi-infinite polyethylene sandwich, and (4) foil with high explosive compression in a polyethylene sandwich. Comparisons with experimental results are also presented.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1985
Accession Number
ADA635781

Entities

People

  • William F. Mccullough

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aluminum Foil
  • Atmospheres
  • Circuits
  • Compression
  • Dielectric Polymers
  • Dielectrics
  • Electric Power
  • Energy
  • Explosives
  • High Explosives
  • Impedance
  • Inductance
  • Materials
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Pulsed Power
  • Simulations

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Electrical Engineering
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.
  • Rocket Propulsion.