Wall Ablation Models for Plasma Flow Switches
Abstract
In the past, the Air Force Weapons Laboratory (AFWL) has developed inductive pulse compression techniques using fuse opening switches [1]. While these techniques produced reasonable circuit efficiency at the energy level of the 1.9 MJ SHIVA capacitor bank, their inherent losses become more significant at the 9 MJ energy level of t he SHIVA STAR capacitor bank. Hence, there has been recent interest in considering plasma flow switches, [2] as alternatives to fuses as opening switches. Because the run down time for the plasma flow switch is quite long (~5 microsecond) in the SHIVA STAR system, ablation of material from the wall of the vacuum transmission line in regions near the switch is of particular concern. Recent calculations by McCullough at AFWL , [3] have shown that ultraviolet radiation which can be characterized by a 10 eV blackbody spectrum, will emanate from the switch during the run down phase. It is the purpose of this report to investigate the ablation from the wall of the power feed and the switch. Previous studies [4- 6] have investigated wall ablation in the vacuum power feed for fuse driven implosions (timescales ~0.3 microseconds).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA637525
Entities
People
- James S. Buff
- Robert E. Reinovsky