Study of Effect of Initial Azimuthal Uniformity of the Current Shell on the Operation of Electric-Discharge Chamber with Plasma Focus

Abstract

Summary form only given. The paper describe a method of special forming of the azimuthally uniform shell in the vicinity of the cylindrical insulator surface in the electric discharge chamber and will present the results of study of the effect of the preliminary formed shell on the subsequent operation of the chamber. The experiments were carried out with the discharge chamber of Meiser type, with anode diameter of 70 mm and cathode diameter of 120 mm. Electric discharge of the special auxiliary current generator assembled in accordance with a two-stage Marx scheme was used for a preliminary formation of the azimuthally uniform current shell. The initial energy in the capacitors of the auxiliary current generator was ~ 20 J. The capacitor bank with the stored energy of about 150 kJ at the discharge voltage of 35 kV was used as the basic energy source switched after the preliminary formation of the shell. The amplitude of current in the discharge chamber supplied by the main energy source is ~ 1,5 MA. The maximum neutron yield at the chamber filling with pure deuterium is on the order of 1011 neutrons per pulse. It is demonstrated mat the preliminary formation of the current shell with the help of auxiliary generator improves significantly the operation of the discharge chamber. Due to preliminary formation of the azimuthally-uniform shell it became possible to increase several times the operation voltage of deuterium in the discharge chamber and to increase significantly the stability of the neutron yield. The last fact is particularly important when switching from the capacitor storages over to the powerful explosive magnetic energy sources.