Publications

ZR Marx capacitor vendor evaluation results and procurement strategy

Smith, David L.; Savage, Mark E.; Maenchen, John E.; McDaniel, Dillon H.; Slattery, Michael J.; Weinbrecht, Edward A.; Kitterman, David L.; Starbird, Robert L.

To meet or exceed the 26-MA goal for ZR, the refurbished upgrade to the Z machine at Sandia National Labs, the existing Marx generator capacitors must be replaced with identical size units but with twice the capacitance. Before the six-month shut down and transition from Z to ZR occurs in late 2005, most of the 2500 capacitors must be delivered for acceptance testing and installation. We chose to undertake an ambitious vendor qualification program to reduce the risk of not meeting ZR performance goals, to encourage the pulsed-power industry to revisit the design and development of high energy discharge capacitors, and to meet the cost and delivery schedule within the ZR project plans. Five manufacturers were willing to fabricate and sell Sandia samples of six capacitors each to be evaluated. In addition, four more samples of modified or alternate designs were submitted for testing at the vendors' expense, giving us a total of 45 capacitors to test. The 8,000-shot qualification test phase of the effort is now complete. This paper summarizes how the 0.279×0.356×0.635-m Scyllac-style 2.6-μF, <30-nH, 100-kV, 35%-reversal capacitor lifetime specifications were determined, briefly describes the nominal 260-kJ test facility configuration, presents the test results of the most successful candidates, and provides procurement strategy and acceptance testing protocols that balance available resources against performance, cost, and schedule risk.