Effect of Wire Diameter and Addition of an Axial Magnetic Field on the Dynamics of Radial Wire Array Z-Pinches

The operation of radial wire array Z -pinches driven by a 1-MA 250-ns current pulse was studied. Variation in the cathode diameter and wire diameter does not affect the overall plasma dynamics but controls the time of wire breakage and the time of pinch formation. The measured times of full wire abl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on plasma science 2010-04, Vol.38 (4), p.581-588
Main Authors: Suzuki-Vidal, Francisco, Lebedev, Sergey V, Bland, Simon N, Hall, Gareth N, Harvey-Thompson, Adam J, Chittenden, Jeremy P, Marocchino, Alberto, Bott, Simon C, Palmer, James, Ciardi, Andrea
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ablation
Arrays
Astrophysics
Axial magnetic field
Cathodes
Compressing
Effects
implosion
Laboratories
magnetic cavity
Magnetic fields
Magnetic flux
Physics
pinch
Plasma
Plasma applications
Plasma diagnostics
Plasma dynamics
plasma jet
Plasma measurements
Plasma simulation
Plasma stability
Plasma x-ray sources
radial wire array
Velocity
Wire
X-rays
Z -pinch
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Summary:The operation of radial wire array Z -pinches driven by a 1-MA 250-ns current pulse was studied. Variation in the cathode diameter and wire diameter does not affect the overall plasma dynamics but controls the time of wire breakage and the time of pinch formation. The measured times of full wire ablation at the cathode were used to determine the ablation velocity ( V abl ), and the results give a scaling V abl ~ (wire diameter) -0.46 . Experiments with added axial magnetic field show an increase in the pinched plasma diameter, possibly due to the compression of the axial magnetic flux by the imploding plasma.
ISSN:0093-3813
1939-9375
DOI:10.1109/TPS.2009.2036730