Liner Compression and Instabilities and Shocks at High Currents with the Pegasus and Ranchero Sources

Abstract

We have done implosion experiments with cylindrical liners at currents ranging from 3 to 25 million amperes (MA). The low current (3-6 MA) experiments are done at the Pegasus capacitor bank facility and the high current (~25MA) ones are done with an explosive flux compression generator (Ranchero) in Ancho canyon at Los Alamos. Visible light and x-ray images provide details of the implosion but provide different results in both axial and radial views. Axial views taken with visible light framing cameras show that measurements of shock front velocity in imploding gas filled (Xe or Ar) aluminum liners appear to be different. Also, axial x-ray images give different shock velocities. Radial views show significant material blow-off as seen with the visible light framing camera. This paper will discuss these differences and how they effect the hydrodynamics and instability growth in liner implosions. We will also discuss the details of the diagnostic techniques that are necessary in this harsh experimental environment

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1999
Accession Number
ADA639459

Entities

People

  • B. Carpenter
  • C. Findley
  • D. Morgan
  • D. Oro
  • Eduardo López
  • Henn Oona
  • J. Lynch
  • Jasmes H. Goforth
  • T. Herrera
  • W. J. Deninger

Organizations

  • Los Alamos National Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aluminum
  • Compression
  • Environment
  • Explosives
  • Generators
  • High Energy
  • High Explosives
  • High Temperature
  • Implosions
  • Instability
  • Materials
  • Measurement
  • Pulsed Power
  • Radiation
  • Two Dimensional
  • Visible Spectra
  • X Rays

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.