Pulsed Power Hydrodynamics: Atlas Results and Future Perspectives

Summary form only given. Pulsed power hydrodynamics (PPH) is a new application of low-impedance, pulsed power technology enabling the study of advanced hydrodynamics, instabilities, turbulence, and material properties in a highly precise, controllable environment at the extremes of pressure and material velocity. The Atlas facility, designed and built by Los Alamos, is the world's first, laboratory pulsed power system designed specifically to explore this family of pulsed power applications. Constructed in the year 2000 and commissioned in August 2001, Atlas is a 24-MJ high-performance capacitor bank delivering currents up to 30-Megamperes with a rise time of 5 to 6-musec. The high-precision, cylindrically imploding liner is the technique most frequently used to convert electromagnetic energy into the hydrodynamic (kinetic) energy needed to drive strong shock, quasi-isentropic, or large volume adiabatic compression experiments. The first Atlas liner implosion experiments along with 16 applications experiments were conducted in Los Alamos between September 2001 and September 2002. Beginning in October 2002 Atlas was disassembled, moved to the Nevada Test Site, and recommissioned in July 2005. The Atlas experimental program at the NTS comprised 10 application experiments beginning in July 2005 and ending in May 2006. .This paper will summarize the results of the first Atlas experiments at the Nevada Test Site. Longer term applications of Atlas may include continuation of the experimental series already begun, and closely related efforts such as the exploration of material strength at high strain rate. However, work on more basic problems including the study of material interfaces subjected to multi-megagauss magnetic fields, the properties and behavior of strongly coupled plasmas; the equation of state of materials at pressures approaching 10 Mbar, and magnetized target fusion concepts can also be considered. While Atlas continues to be the only laboratory facility specifically designed to pursue pulsed power hydrodynamics concepts, other platforms including the AF Shiva Star system, explosive pulsed power systems and newer, smaller scale systems that provide the advantages of pulsed power drive can offer new capability for PPH experiments. For example, PPH experiments that employ advanced diagnostics such as proton- radiography and other advanced accelerator techniques can be considered if smaller scale drivers can be developed; and experiments requiring very large energies or involving special environments can be considered using explosive pulsed power systems. Options for extending the scope of PPH experiments beyond Atlas are being explored.