An experimental facility to investigate the physics of thermal implosion of plasmas

Summary form only given. The heart of the University of Miami facility described here is a 20MJ capacitive pulsed power supply at a maximum rated voltage of 10 kV configured in modules of 100 kJ per module. Each of these modules can be independently charged to any predetermined voltage and can be independently triggered with arbitrarily desired delays. The system is controlled by a fully programmable controller with complete solid-state optoisolation of field devices, providing maximum flexibility in the experimental procedure and avoiding complication in grounding considerations. The whole facility is housed in a laboratory measuring 100 ft. long, 30 ft. wide, and 12 ft. high, equipped with a 3-ton crane for material and equipment transport. A design of a preliminary device for studying the physics of thermal implosion of dense plasmas, at first in a cylindrical geometry, has been developed.