Acceleration of Metallic Flyers at Angara-5-1 Facility

Abstract

The acceleration of a flyer by a magnetic field allows studying the dynamic characteristics of matter in submicrosecond processes. At the Angara-5-1 facility, pressure is created by a magnetic field of the current with the linear current density of up to 5 MA/cm. The velocity of up to 10 km/s was obtained in the first experiments on acceleration of a duralumin flyer 1 mm thick. Two methods are used for registration of the flyer velocity: laser shadow photography and VISAR interferometric method. This paper presents the results of experiments on determining the velocity of a flyer by the VISAR method. Particular attention is paid to the problem of suppression of spurious signals in the VISAR registration system. The first problem was electromagnetic interference emerging when the Angara-5-1 facility is activated, when megavolt voltages and megaampere currents are generated within a hundred nanoseconds. The second problem was bremstrahlung radiation emerging when magnetic self-isolation is established in vacuum transmission lines. This radiation affects the optics, fiber optic cables, and photomultipliers. The suppression of these two sources of interference ensured the reliable registration of the VISAR signals. The results obtained by the two laser methods—shadow photography and VISAR—coincide with each other and with the results of numerical simulation of flyer acceleration. The experimental results and simulation results are compared.