Rayleigh-Taylor stability criteria for magnetically imploded solid liners

Summary form only given, as follows. Approximate analytic Rayleigh-Taylor stability criteria for elastic-plastic solid liners, where convergence imposes a background strain rate tensor, is reviewed and compared to other work. It is shown that in the incompressible two-dimensional planar limit, with constant yield strength and shear modulus, the dynamics of a liner driven by a massless fluid vs. a magnetic field orthogonal to the perturbation are equivalent. This holds regardless of the form or magnitude of the perturbation or degree of magnetic diffusion. The proposition that a redistribution of the magnetic pressure due to diffusion has no effect on the material dynamics has proven to be counterintuitive to many, so will be discussed in depth. Beyond the above limit, however, thermal softening and phase transitions due to Ohmic heating, compressibility, three-dimensional flow, and cylindrical geometry can be issues. The conditions where these effects can be expected to significantly effect the dynamics are discussed.