Numerical study on magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities for thin liner implosions on the primary test stand facility

Abstract

The thin aluminum liners with an aspect ratio R/∆r 1 have been imploded on the primary test stand (PTS) facility, where R is the outer radius of the liner and ∆r is the thickness. The x-ray self-emission images present azimuthally correlated perturbations in the liner implosions. The experiments show that at −10 ns before the stagnation, the wavelengths of perturbation are about 0.93 mm and 1.67 mm for the small-radius and large-radius liners, respectively. We have utilized the resistive magnetohydrodynamic code PLUTO to study the development of magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor (MRT) instabilities under experimental conditions. The calculated perturbation amplitudes are consistent with the experimental observations very well. We have found that both mode coupling and long implosion distance are responsible for the more developed instabilities in the large-radius liner implosions.

Scaling of rise time of drive current on development of magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities for single-shell Z-pinches

“…The open source code PLUTO, [42] which has been successfully used for simulating MRT instabilities, is utilized to solve the above equations in thin aluminum liner experiments on the 7-8 MA facility. [43] The thin shell model [6,15] is a commonly used approximation for the Z-pinch implosions without considering the 2D phenomena. In the model, the dimensionless parameter…”

“…After that, it begins to grow exponentially in the run-in phase, which is in agreement with the aluminum foil experiments on the MAIZE machine at University of Manchester [48] and on the pulse power generator at CAEP. [43] 10 -1 We divide the run-in phase into three regimes according to the perturbation development and implosion characteristics: the snowplow regime, the thin-shell regime and the breakthrough regime, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.…”

Investigation of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability in charged fluids

“…For instance, the stability of stratified dust clouds suspended in anode plasma was analyzed, and the RT instability was detected [28]. Additionally, the RT instability finds broad applications in inertial confinement fusion [50,51], laboratory plasma [52,53], as well as astrophysical settings like crab nebulae [54] and supernova remnants [55].…”

A numerical study on laboratory plasma dynamics validated by low current x-pinch experiments

“…These conditions allow for the natural development of the current density distribution in time, in response to the imposed electromagnetic fields. Most of the developed approximation models combine the hydrodynamics and Maxwell's equations in moving media with displacement currents neglected [24][25][26][27][28][29][35][36][37], hence the values of the magnetic field at the boundaries are subjected to instant modification since retaining fields do not exist. When displacement currents are included, the complete electromagnetic equations are considered, thus the boundary conditions are imposed in accordance to the propagation of the electromagnetic waves [7,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”