An Improved Plasma Opening Switch for DECADE

CURRENT ATTEMPTS TO USE THE PLASMA OPENING SWITCH (POS) FOR DECADE HAVE NOT YET BEEN ENTIRELY SUCCESSFUL DUE TO THE APPARENT INABILITY OF THE SWITCH TO OPEN EFFICIENTLY TO A HIGH-IMPEDENCE LOAD. RESEARCH DIRECTED TOWARD IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE POS IN THE LONG-CONDUCTION TIME REGIME HAS BEEN FRUSTRATED BY THE INABILITY OF COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS TO OPERATE IN THE PARAMETER REGIMES OF INTEREST TO THE EXPERIMENTALISTS. THE DESIGN OF AN IMPROVED OPENING SWITCH FOR DECADE REQUIRES THE USE OF A COMPUTATIONAL TOOL THAT CAN OPERATE IN THESE HIGH-DENSITY AND LONG TIMESCALE REGIMES. THE ONLY TOOL CURRENTLY AVAILABLE WHICH NOT ONLY CAN OPERATE IN THESE REGIMES EFFICIENTLY, BUT WHICH ALSO CAN EXPLORE NONTRIVIAL GEOMETRIES, IS THE 2D MHD CODE MACH2. WE WILL USE MACH2 TO ANALYZE LONG-CONDUCTION TIME POS EXPERIMENTS, STARTING WITH THE TAPERED CATHODE EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED ON THE HAWK FACILITY AT THE NAVAL RESEARCH LABORATORY. WE WILL STUDY THE FEASIBILITY OF USING AND EXTENDING MACH2'S HAII-MHD MODEL FOR TREATING VACUUM ELECTRON FLOW. THESE PHASE I EFFORTS WILL LEAD TO A PHASE II RESEARCH PROGRAM WHOSE GOAL IS TO PRODUCE AN IMPROVED PLASMA OPENING SWITCH FOR DECADE.