Plasma Flow Switch Experiments On Pegasus-II

Pegasus-II, a 4.3 MJ capacitor bank facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has a current rise time of 5 {mu}s and requires the use of a fast ({approx} 500 ns) opening switch with long conduction time for some applications. Development of plasma flow opening switches (PFS), based on the design of the Shiva Star experiments, has been conducted during the last year. The PFS for these experiments consisted of two components: an annular aluminum conductor bridging the gap between the coaxial conductors in the Pegasus-II power-flow channel and an annular mylar foil located 6.3 mm downstream of the aluminum. The authors have investigated assemblies with 1/r{sup 2} mass distributions, designed to produce planar motion down the power flow channel. The total mass of the PFS assembly has been varied as has the construction of the aluminum component. The downstream load in the load slot was either a high inductance, 1-cm radius non-imploding pipe or a cylindrical, 12.7-mg pure aluminum imploding foil with 5-cm radius. Experiments have been conducted both with and without a trap region in the downstream inner conductor; the trap is one mechanism for preventing PFS material from entering the load slot.