Demonstration of Electrically Driven Flux Compression

Starmark has teamed with Ktech Corporation and Sandia National Laboratories to demonstrate an enhancement of x-ray yield on the Decade Radiation Test Facility by means of electrically driven flux compression. The team will use novel stable “skinny-armature” and “inside-out” designs, which were developed and demonstrated successfully in Phase I. The demonstration will use wire-array cartridges custom made by Sandia to achieve pulse sharpening and current amplification on Decade. We will measure the performance enhancements of the cartridges in both static inductive loads and plasma radiation sources. The objective of the Phase II program is to achieve a yield capability of 80 kJ of Ar K-shell radiation and 50 kJ of Ti K-shell radiation on the Decade x-ray simulator by a simple, low-cost means. This objective is meant to demonstrate that flux compression can be a simple, robust, efficient, and reliable means to achieve pulse sharpening and power compression in Decade and next-generation machines. Results will be generalized for use in boosting electrical power and x-ray yields on existing and future x-ray simulators. ***A waiver request for the use in Phase II of Federal facilities is included in this proposal.