The magnetic flux compression scheme as a power amplification & pulse shaping stage

Abstract

The magnetic flux compression scheme is studied at Centre d'Etudes de Gramat (CEG) in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories. This scheme is studied as a pulse shaping scheme for very high pressure and isentropic compression in material and as a power amplification scheme for X ray production. Experiments have been done in two different regimes: 100 ns, 15 MA pulse on the Z generator at Sandia and 1 /spl mu/s, 3 MA pulse on the ECF generator at CEG. A summary of the shots on Z, as well as on ECF is given. For example, 5 Mbar as a shock, more than 2 Mbar in isentropic compression in a copper sample have been achieved on the Z generator using flux compression. Comparisons between simulations and experiments are presented. They allow us to tune the codes in order to predict the experimental results and improve our physical understanding of the scheme.