Abstract
The design and test results of a pulsed power-driven X-ray source which is named Hawkeye-I are described. The Hawkeye-I is developed to execute flash X-ray radiography. It is a six-stage induction voltage adder and terminated by a positive polarity rod-pinch diode. The six stages are identical and the prime energy of each stage is provided by a tesla transformer elevating the output voltage from a discharge brick which consists of two $4\text{ }\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{F}$ capacitors and a three-electrode gas switch. Comparing to the induction voltage adders driven by Marx generators, the numbers of gas switches and capacitors in the energy storage sections of Hawkeye-I decrease significantly. The Hawkeye-I can produce a maximum output voltage of about 4.2 MV. The corresponding X-ray source spot size and dose at 1 m are 1.4 mm and 17.9 rad, respectively. Fifty consecutive shots have been conducted to evaluate the reliability of the machine and 98% of the shots are successful. Furthermore, as the energy propagating in the accelerator is mainly determined by seven laser-triggered gas switches, the Hawkeye-I is capable of controlling the timing of the X-ray pulse accurately.
Highlights
Flash X-ray radiography has been used extensively in hydrodynamic experiments to take stop-action images of the materials driven by explosives
The voltage pulses transmitting through the self-breaking oil switches and propagating along the water transmission line (WTL) are added by the induction cavities, and the summed voltages are restricted to the output transmission line region
The charging time of the pulse forming line (PFL) was 130 ns, and the self-breaking oil switch closed nearly 20 ns before the PFL was charged to the maximum value
Summary
Flash X-ray radiography has been used extensively in hydrodynamic experiments to take stop-action images of the materials driven by explosives. Electron beam diode driven by pulsed power machine is a way to obtain the flash X ray that takes advantages of low cost and compactness. Many pulsed power accelerators are being built and executed around the world for flash radiography programs, such as radiographic integrated test stand (RITS) [4] and Cygnus [5,6,7] in the United States, SuperSwarf [8] and Merlin [9] in the United Kingdom, Asterix [10] in France, and Jianguang accelerators [11,12] in China. Due to the requirement of executing the hydrodynamic experiments in our laboratory, we have
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