A flash x-ray system for diagnosing liner implosions

This paper describes a low energy flash X-ray system that is ideal for radiographing a wide variety of experimental phenomenon on both capacitor-bank pulsed power facilities and explosively driven magnetic-flux compression experiments. The versatility of this system has allowed us to obtain both single X-radiographs of imploding liners and multiple, temporally resolved radiographic sequences of target evolution. The dynamic liner radiographs are acquired with radially oriented X-ray heads that are instrumental for observing and diagnosing liner shape and symmetry, Rayleigh-Taylor instability growth, and liner-glide plane interaction (see Fig. 1). Multiframe radiographs acquired along the axis of a cylindrical target are used to provide physical data on phenomena such as shock-driven target hydrodynamics, Richtmyer-Meshkov instability growth, spall, fiction, and equations of state. The flexibility of this X-ray system has also allowed it to be successfully fielded both at various gas and powder gun facilities and explosively driven shock physics experiments.