Optimizing liner implosions for high energy density physics experiments

Abstract

Cylindrical metal shells imploded by magnetic fields - liners - are used as kinetic energy drivers for high energy density physics experiments in hydrodynamics and dynamic material property measurements. There are at least three ways in which liners have been, or are expected to be, used to produce high energy density, i.e., high pressure, in target materials. A common approach uses the liner as a convergent flyer plate, which impacts a material target cylinder after having been shocklessly accelerated across an intervening gap. The resultant shock and piston hydrodynamic flow in the target are used in exploration of a wide variety of phenomena and material properties. Another common method is to slowly compress a liner containing a material sample in a such fashion that little heating occurs. This technique is most useful for investigated physical properties at low temperature and extreme density. Finally, one can use a hybrid approach to shock heat with an impacting liner followed by slower adiabatic, if not isentropic, compression to explore material properties in extrema. The magnetic fields for driving these liners may be produced by either high explosive pulsed power generators or by capacitor banks. Here we will consider only capacitor banks

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