Modeling and analysis of a flux compression concept designed for driving PRS loads

Summary form only given, as follows. Flux compression in vacuum offers the possibility of using present pulsed-power technology to drive loads such as a plasma radiation source to regimes not otherwise accessible. There is a price in terms of energy efficiency, but there is a potential gain from reduced instability growth. Design of a flux compression experiment for the Decade Quad facility at Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tullahoma, Tennessee based on 0-D circuit and slug models will be presented. The 0-D modeling approach offers a means of rapidly assessing a variety of design options; empirical forms of losses, resistive diffusion, and instabilities provide some degree of realism. Multidimensional MHD modeling using the Air Force Research Laboratory's code, MACH2, is used to study specific design issues. Multidimensional modeling has been helpful for examining the effect of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability on the behavior of the outer array, for examining the energy lost due to resistive heating of the outer array, and the loss of interior magnetic flux into the outer array due to resistive diffusion. An illustrative hardware design will be shown for the Decade Quad facility at Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tullahoma, Tennessee, and preliminary experimental results will be presented and discussed.