Unstable behavior in wire array discharges and effect of wire shape

Z pinches using wire arrays have been investigated to achieve nuclear fusion. Suppression of instabilities in Z-pinch plasma is one of extremely important tasks. The explosions of the wires in an array do not simultaneously proceed and the currents through wires do not balance, and then an unstable behavior of current glows in wire explosion. As a result, nonuniform distribution of wire currents will cause azimuthal Rayleigh-Taylor instability of Z-pinch plasmas. The inhomogeneous deviation of wire array current is induced by inconstant increase in resistance of wire material, e.g., rapid increase in the evaporation. Here, the effect of the wire shape, e.g., scratches on the wires and/or dimensional process error of wires, on the unstable behavior of discharging current is numerically analyzed. The non-uniformity of wire shape causes the local asynchronous heating and will trigger the unstable behavior. The inductance of wire and the fast rise of generator current can restrain the inhomogeneous deviation of wire array current.