Title :
Experimental Analysis of the Acceleration Region in Tungsten Wire Arrays
Author :
Bott, Simon C. ; Mariscal, Derek ; Gunasekera, Kanchana ; Peebles, Jonathan ; Beg, Farhat N. ; Hammer, David A. ; Kusse, B.R. ; Greenly, J.B. ; Shelkovenko, T.A. ; Pikuz, S.A. ; Blesener, I.C. ; McBride, Ryan D. ; Douglass, J.D. ; Blesener, K.S. ; Knapp,
Author_Institution :
Center for Energy Res., Univ. of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Abstract :
We present the first analysis of the ablated plasma flow acceleration region in tungsten cylindrical wire arrays within 1 mm of the wire core. We apply a recently developed modification to the Lebedev rocket model to infer the 2-D distribution of effective velocities which redistribute the array mass as a function of time. From these data, it is possible to directly observe the acceleration region in a wire array. Analysis of radiography data from the 1-MA Cornell Beam Research Accelerator machine suggests a region of rapid acceleration extending up to 300 μm from the wire core in 16 wire tungsten arrays.
Keywords :
plasma magnetohydrodynamics; tungsten; wires; 2-D distribution; Cornell Beam Research Accelerator machine; Lebedev rocket model; W; ablated plasma flow acceleration region; acceleration region; array mass redistribution; current 1 MA; magnetohydrodynamics; radiography data analysis; time function; tungsten cylindrical wire arrays; wire core; Arrays; Plasmas; Radiography; Tungsten; Wires; Precursor plasma; wire array $Z$ -pinch;
Journal_Title :
Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TPS.2012.2213307
