MHRDR modeling of z-pinches at the Nevada Terawatt Facility

Summary form only given, as follows. 1D modeling of the initial state of wire explosions ("cold start" with updated SESAME tables) was examined using a 1D version of the Eulerian magnetohydrodynamic radiative code (MHRDR). Simulations were carried out for two regimes: with (black body radiative model) and without radiative losses. The results of the simulations revealed strong dependence of the time of explosion and expansion speed of the wire on the implemented radiative model. This shows that it is necessary to accurately include radiative losses to model "cold start" wire explosions. Comparison with the Imperial College (UK) computational results are also presented. 2D modeling of the m=0 sausage instability with sheared axial flow are given. The MHRDR simulations were used to obtain the growth rate of the m=0 sausage instability in a plasma column with an initial Bennett equilibrium profile with and without shear flow. These growth rates appeared to be in good agreement with growth rates calculated from the linearized MHD equations 2D modeling of single wire z-pinches with a "warm start". MHRDR simulation results are being compared with X-ray measurements of Ti, Fe, and other single wire z-pinches.