Abstract
We present a new experimental platform for studying radiative shocks using an “inverse liner z-pinch” configuration. This platform was tested on the MAGPIE pulsed power facility (~1 MA with a rise time of ~240 ns) at Imperial College London, U.K. Current is discharged through a thin-walled metal tube (a liner) embedded in a low-density gas-fill and returned through a central post. The resulting magnetic pressure inside the liner launched a cylindrically symmetric, expanding radiative shock into the gas-fill at ~10 km/s. This experimental platform provides good diagnostic access, allowing multiframe optical self-emission imaging, laser interferometry, and optical emission spectrography to be fielded. Results from experiments with an Argon gas-fill initially at 0.04 mg/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> are presented, demonstrating the successful production of cylindrically symmetric, expanding shocks that exhibit radiative effects such as the formation of a radiative precursor.
Highlights
R ADIATIVE effects occur in high mach number shocks when the radiative flux from the thermal emission of the hot postshock material is nonnegligible, resulting in significant changes to the shock structure and the formation of a radiative shock [1], [2]
This paper introduces a new experimental platform for studying radiative shocks that were demonstrated on the MAGPIE pulsed power facility (∼1 MA with a rise time of ∼240 ns) [25] at Imperial College London, U.K
A novel platform for studying radiative shocks has been demonstrated on the MAGPIE pulsed power facility (∼1 MA in 240 ns) at Imperial College London, U.K
Summary
R ADIATIVE effects occur in high mach number shocks when the radiative flux from the thermal emission of the hot postshock material is nonnegligible, resulting in significant changes to the shock structure and the formation of a radiative shock [1], [2]. Understanding these phenomena is of great importance to the high energy density physics community due to their presence in inertial confinement fusion implosions [3] and their abundance in astrophysical events [4].
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