Equation of state and electron transport effects in exploding wire evolution

Accurate MHD modeling of a single exploding Al wire is a prerequisite to being able to model a wire array. We have compared our simulation results to the high-quality laboratory measurements from exploding-wire experiments recently done at Cornell University. Exploding wire simulations have identified regions where our transport models must be most accurate. Improvements we have made in these regions (e.g., solid density, near melt, and the metal-insulator transition) have proven to be critical for achieving accurate simulations.