MHD simulations of plasma opening switch experiments on Hawk using a hydrogen plasma source

Summary form only given. Inductive energy-store (IES) technology has the potential to reduce both the size and cost of TW-level pulsed-power systems. One key component of an IES system that is still under development is the plasma opening switch (POS). In this paper results from MHD simulations of the hydrogen plasma source will be presented and compared to hawk measurements. In addition, we will use the PIC method to examine the role of species separation in POSs that contain multiple ion species with widely varying masses. In recent POS experiments at the Weizmann Institute it was observed that the magnetic field is frozen-in on the lighter species leaving the heavier plasma components magnetized. This phenomena may also be important for the DECADE POS where current transfer between the POS and load may occur through this lighter species.