Shock‐Wave and Material Properties Experiments Using the Los Alamos Atlas Pulsed Power System

The Atlas facility built by Los Alamos is the world’s first and only laboratory pulsed power system designed specifically to provide capability for shock‐wave physics, materials properties, instability, and hydrodynamics experiments in converging geometry. Constructed in 2000 and commissioned in August 2001, Atlas completed its first year of physics experiments in October 2002, using ultra high precision magnetically imploded, cylindrical liners to reliably and reproducibly convert electrical energy to hydrodynamic energy in targets whose volume is many cubic centimeters. Multi‐view (transverse and axial) radiography, laser‐illuminated shadowgraphy, and VISAR measurements of liner and target surface motion, in addition to electrical diagnostics, provide a detailed description of the behavior of the experimental package. In the first year material damage and failure experiments, dynamic friction experiments, and a family of converging shock experiments were conducted in addition to a detailed series of lin...