Computational Simulations Of Plasma Flow Switches And Imploding Loads

The Procyon system in the Los Alamos Trailmaster foil implosion project is intended to produce soft x-ray radiation by delivering about 1 MJ of kinetic energy to an imploding plasma Iiner. The final switching stage of this system will be a Plasma Flow Switch (PFS) which delivers current to the cylindrical foil load. 1-D and 2-D simulations are now being conducted to examine: the initiation of the PFS plasma- the dynamics of the PFS and its switching efficiency; the load implosion and resulting radiation out- put. Considered here, for the PIPS and imploding load, are the effects of electrode walls, perturbations, and radiation. Comparisons with experiments (using the 1.5 MJ Pegasus capacitor bank) are also described.