Solid liner compresses working fluid to megabar range
Abstract
12 MA axial discharges were used to implode tapered thickness spherical aluminum shells, achieving implosion velocities at the inner surface above 20 km/s. These implosions were used to compress hydrogen plasmas with initial pressures > 100 atm and initial temperature > 1 eV. The plasmas were preinjected using 1 MA, 100 kJ range coaxial gun discharges through a circular array of vanes to strip away magnetic field. The imploding shell and the compressed working fluid's effect on a diagnostic compression target were observed radiographically. Magnetic probes on auxiliary shots indicate that there is negligible magnetic field interior to the Al shell. The target's radius vs. time indicates that the fluid pressure exceeds 1 Mbar approximately 0.1 μs prior to liner-target contact.
- Publication:
-
APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- November 1997
- Bibcode:
- 1997APS..DPPgTO108D