MTF investigations with Shiva-Star: formation and translation of an FRC into an imploding solid liner with deformable contacts

Summary form only given. Shiva Star - the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate's 10 MJ, ten microsecond capacitor bank - has symmetrically imploded cylindrical aluminum liners suitable for compressing MTF plasmas. An FRC target plasma has been created in experiments at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Since the FRC is driven by a rapidly rising axial magnetic field that cannot penetrate the compression liner, the FRC will need to be translated into the liner after formation and before compression. Shiva Star has been used to explore an imploding cylindrical liner with open ends that remains connected to fixed annular electrodes during the implosion by tapered ends that implode more slowly than its cylindrical center. We show two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations performed with MACH2 of formation and translation of an FRC fusion target plasma and its compression by an imploding liner with deformable contacts. Neutron yield is presented and the effects of anisotropic thermal diffusion is explored.