Experimental and Computational Exploration of the Effects of Non-Uniform Applied Axial Magnetic Field on Z-Pinch Imploding Cylindrical Foils*

We use X-pinch radiography and PERSEUS [1], an extended magneto-hydrodynamic simulation code developed by Seyler et al., to explore the effect that an applied non-uniform axial magnetic field has on a z-pinch imploding cylindrical liner as compared to a uniform magnetic field. The effect of magnetic field geometry is of importance to inertial confinement fusion efforts being explored at Sandia National Laboratories on the Z-machine, which uses z-pinch cylindrical liners to compress fusion fuel. We present results of radiographic imaging of cylindrical foils imploded on the MAIZE facility at the University of Michigan, a 1-MA, 100-ns rise time pulsed power machine, as well as results from simulation work using PERSEUS.

[1] C.E. Seyler and M.R. Martin.Relaxation model for extended magnetohydrodynamics: Comparison to magnetohydrodynamics for dense Z-pinches.Physics of Plasmas 18, 012703 (2011).