Dynamics and stability of twisted-wire arrays

Abstract

A multiwire screw pinch, a variant of a z-pinch load, is proposed as a means for further improvement of load performance for high-current 100-ns pulsed-power generators used for terawatt X-ray radiation. Wires twisted along a curved load surface are suggested to be an effective way to create an axial magnetic field and to generate and to maintain rotation of the subsequently formed plasma shell due to conservation of angular momentum. A multiwire screw pinch is predicted to mitigate the growth of the magneto-Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities, to provide a higher pinch compression ratio and more effective X-ray generation compared to classical z-pinch loads. A model based on the self-consistent simulation of the dynamics of a twisted plasma shell and the development of Rayleigh–Taylor (R-T) perturbations on a plasma surface is proposed to quantitatively study the effect of various physical factors on the generation of X rays. The model provides us with a tool for the analysis of processes that occur during the implosion of the plasma-shell–wire-core system. We plan for the R-T perturbations to break through the plasma shell at the moment when the internal radius of a shell becomes zero, where the greatest possible values of kinetic energy and X-ray radiation power ought to be obtained. The results of numerical simulations for the Sandia National Laboratories' Z generator are presented and discussed.