Extended liner performance for hydrodynamics and material properties experiments

Summary form only given, as follows. Over the last few years a new application for high performance pulsed power, the production of high energy density environments for the study of material properties under extreme conditions and hydrodynamics in complex geometries has joined the traditional family of radiation source applications. The newly commissioned Atlas pulsed power system at Los Alamos has replaced its predecessor, Pegasus, and joined the Shiva Star system at AFRL, Albuquerque and a variety of flux compression systems, principally at the All Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF) as ultra high current drivers for the high precision, magnetically imploded, near-solid density liner that is used to create the needed environments. Three families of experiments: the production of ultra strong shocks (>10 Mbar), the production of strongly coupled plasmas by liner compression of an initially dense plasma of a few eV temperature, and the compression of a magnetized plasma for fusion applications, all require liner velocities in excess of 15 km/s (approaching 30-40 km/s) and kinetic energies of several MJ per cm of liner height and these conditions require extensions of liner performance already reported. The requirements for implosion precision have been met by relying on material strength in a partially un-melted liner to limit the growth rate of instabilities to acceptable levels. This approach leads to the requirement for very large driving currents and energies (100 MA and 100 MJ) to reach high-impact velocities. These limits have not been explored in detail. Alternatively, very high impact velocities can be achieved using plasma liners, whose stability cannot be controlled by material strength and such liners must be designed from the outset to control instability growth. The limitation of plasma liners in material properties and hydrodynamics experiments are explored.