Publications

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In this article we discuss scaling the magnetically accelerated flyer plate technique to currents greater than is available on the Z accelerator. Peak flyer plate speeds in the range 7-46 km/s are achieved in pulsed power driven, hyper-velocity impact experiments on Z for peak currents in the range 8-20 MA. The highest (lowest) speeds are produced using aluminum (aluminum-copper) flyer plates. In either case, the ≈1 mm thick flyer plate is shocklessly accelerated by magnetic pressure to ballistic speed in ≈400 ns; it arrives at the target with a fraction of material at standard density. During acceleration a melt front, due to resistive heating, moves from the drive-side toward the target-side of the flyer plate; the speed of the melt front increases with increasing current. Peak flyer speeds on Z scale quadratically (linearly) with current at the low (high) end of the range. Magnetohydrodynamic simulation shows that the change in scaling is due to geometric deformation, and that linear scaling continues as current increases. However, the combined effects of shockless acceleration and resistive heating lead to an upper bound on the magnetic field feasible for pulsed power driven flyer plate experiments, which limits the maximum possible speed of a useful flyer plate to < 100 km/s. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

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For the past decade, a large, interdisciplinary team at Sandia National Laboratories has been refining the Z Machine (20+ MA and 10+ MGauss) into a mature, robust, and precise platform for material dynamics experiments in the multi-Mbar pressure regime. In particular, significant effort has gone into effectively coupling condensed matter theory, magneto-hydrodynamic simulation, and electromagnetic modeling to produce a fully self-consistent simulation capability able to very accurately predict the performance of the Z machine and various experimental load configurations. This capability has been instrumental in the ability to develop experimental platforms to routinely perform magnetic ramp compression experiments to over 4 Mbar, and magnetically accelerate flyer plates to over 40 km/s, creating over 20 Mbar impact pressures. Furthermore, a strong tie has been developed between the condensed matter theory and the experimental program. This coupling has been proven time and again to be extremely fruitful, with the capability of both theory and experiment being challenged and advanced through this close interrelationship. This paper will provide an overview of the material dynamics platform and discuss several examples of the use of Z to perform extreme material dynamics studies with unprecedented accuracy in support of basic science, planetary astrophysics, inertial confinement fusion, and the emerging field of high energy density laboratory physics. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

We describe a technique for measuring the pressure and density of a metallic solid, shocklessly compressed to multi-megabar pressure, through x-ray radiography of a magnetically driven, cylindrical liner implosion. Shockless compression of the liner produces material states that correspond approximately to the principal compression isentrope (quasi-isentrope). This technique is used to determine the principal quasi-isentrope of solid beryllium to a peak pressure of 2.4 Mbar from x-ray images of a high current (20 MA), fast (∼100 ns) liner implosion. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.