Electron and ion magnetohydrodynamic effects in plasma opening switches

Summary form only given. The authors consider regimes in plasma opening switches where the conduction phase is dominated by the hydrodynamic deformation of the plasma and/or the penetration of current by electron magnetohydrodynamic (EMH) effects. A 2-D numerical code has been developed to examine these effects. To benchmark the code's performance, comparisons have been made to a special case where analytic solutions are available. The code makes it possible to investigate the competition between hydrodynamic plasma motion and EMH field penetration for realistic density profiles in r and z. Boundary conditions on the magnetic field and fluid velocities at electrode surfaces may strongly influence the results and are also being investigated.