Chengwei Sun

A 4 MA, 500 ns pulsed power generator CQ-4 for characterization of material behaviors under ramp wave loading

A pulsed power generator CQ-4 was developed to characterize dynamic behaviors of materials under ramp wave loading, and to launch high velocity flyer plates for shock compression and hypervelocity impact experiments of materials and structures at Institute of Fluid Physics, China Academy of Engineering Physics. CQ-4 is composed of twenty capacitor and primary discharge switch modules with total capacitance of 32 μF and rated charging voltage of 100 kV, and the storage energy is transmitted by two top and bottom parallel aluminum plates insulated by twelve layers of polyester film with total thickness of 1.2 mm. Between capacitor bank and chamber, there are 72 peaking capacitors with total capacitance of 7.2 μF and rated voltage of 120 kV in parallel, which are connected with the capacitor bank in parallel. Before the load, there is a group of seven secondary self-breaking down switches connected with the total circuit in series. The peaking capacitors and secondary switches are used to shape the discharging current waveforms. For short-circuit, the peak current of discharging can be up to 3 ~ 4 MA and rise time varies from 470 ns to 600 ns when the charging voltages of the generator are from 75 kV to 85 kV. With CQ-4 generator, some quasi-isentropic compression experiments under ramp wave loadings are done to demonstrate the ability of CQ-4 generator. And some experiments of launching high velocity flyer plates are also done on CQ-4. The experimental results show that ramp wave loading pressure of several tens of GPa on copper and aluminum samples can be realized and the velocity of aluminum flyer plate with size of 10 mm × 6 mm × 0.35 mm can be accelerated to about 11 km/s and the velocity of aluminum flyer plate with size of 10 mm × 6 mm × 0.6 mm can be up to about 9 km/s, which show that CQ-4 is a good and versatile tool to realize ramp wave loading and shock compression for shock physics.

The compact capacitor bank CQ-1.5 employed in magnetically driven isentropic compression and high velocity flyer plate experiments

Based on the low inductance capacitor, the parallel-plate transmission line, and the explosive network closing switch, a compact pulsed power generator CQ-1.5 has been developed at the Institute of Fluid Physics and is capable to deliver a current of peak of 1.5 MA within rise time of 500-570 ns into a 2-3 nH inductive load. The work is motivated to do isentropic compression experiments (ICEs) on metals up to 30-50 GPa and to launch flyer plates at velocities over 8 kms. The experiments were conducted with the diagnostics of both Doppler pin system and velocity interferometer system for any reflectors, and the measured free surface velocity histories of ICE samples were treated with a backward integration code. The results show that the isentropes of Cu and Al samples under 35 GPa are close to their Hugoniots within a deviation of 3%. The LY12 aluminum flyer plates were accelerated to a velocity over 8.96 kms.

The techniques of metallic foil electrically exploding driving hypervelocity flyer to more than 10 km/s for shock wave physics experiments

Electrical explosion of metallic foil or wire is widely used to the fields of material science (preparation of nao-meter materials), dynamics of materials, and high energy density physics. In this paper, the techniques of gaining hypervelocity flyer driven by electrical explosion of metallic foil were researched, which are used to study dynamics of materials and hypervelocity impact modeling of space debris. Based on low inductance technologies of pulsed storage energy capacitor, detonator switch and parallel plate transmission lines with solid films insulation, two sets of experimental apparatuses with storage energy of 14.4 kJ and 40 kJ were developed for launching hypervelocity flyer. By means of the diagnostic technologies of velocity interferometer system for any reflectors and fibre-optic pins, the hypervelocity polyester (Mylar) flyers were gained. For the apparatus of 14.4 kJ, flyer of diameter φ6 ~ φ10 mm and thickness of 0.1 ~ 0.2 mm was accelerated to the hypervelocity of 10 ~ 14 km/s. And for the apparatus of 40 kJ, flyer of diameter φ20 ~ 30 mm and thickness of 0.2 mm was launched to the velocity of 5 ~ 8 km/s. The flatness of the flyer is not more than 34 ns for the flyer with diameter of 20 mm, and less than 22 ns for the flyer with diameter of 10 mm. Based on the Lagrange hydrodynamic code, one dimensional simulation was done by introducing database of equation of states, discharging circuit equation and Joule heat equation, and modifying energy equation. The simulation results are well agreed with the experimental results in accelerating processing. The simulation results can provide good advices in designing new experiments and developing new experimental devices. Finally, some experiments of materials dynamics and hypervelocity impact of space debris were done by using the apparatus above. The results show that the apparatus of metallic foil electrically exploding driving hypervelocity flyer is a good and versatile tool for shock dynamics.

Dynamic behaviors of a Zr-based bulk metallic glass under ramp wave and shock wave loading

Dynamic behaviors of Zr51Ti5Ni10Cu25Al9 bulk metallic glass were investigated using electric gun and magnetically driven isentropic compression device which provide shock and ramp wave loading respectively. Double-wave structure was observed under shock compression while three-wave structure was observed under ramp compression in 0 ∼ 18GPa. The HEL of Zr51Ti5Ni10Cu25Al9 is 8.97 ± 0.61GPa and IEL is 8.8 ± 0.3GPa, respectively. Strength of Zr51Ti5Ni10Cu25Al9 estimated from HEL is 5.0 ± 0.3GPa while the strength estimated from IEL is 3.6 ± 0.1GPa. Shock wave velocity versus particle velocity curve of Zr51Ti5Ni10Cu25Al9 under shock compression appears to be bilinear and a kink appears at about 18GPa. The Lagrangian sound speed versus particle velocity curve of Zr51Ti5Ni10Cu25Al9 under ramp wave compression exhibits two discontinuances and are divided to three regions: elastic, plastic-I and plastic-II. The first jump-down occurs at elastic-plastic transition and the second appears at about 17GPa. In elastic a...

A high current pulsed power generator CQ-3-MMAF with co-axial cable transmitting energy for material dynamics experiments

A high current pulsed power generator CQ-3-MMAF (Multi-Modules Assembly Facility, MMAF) was developed for material dynamics experiments under ramp wave and shock loadings at the Institute of Fluid Physics (IFP), which can deliver 3 MA peak current to a strip-line load. The rise time of the current is 470 ns (10%-90%). Different from the previous CQ-4 at IFP, the CQ-3-MMAF energy is transmitted by hundreds of co-axial high voltage cables with a low impedance of 18.6 mΩ and low loss, and then hundreds of cables are reduced and converted to tens of cables into a vacuum chamber by a cable connector, and connected with a pair of parallel metallic plates insulated by Kapton films. It is composed of 32 capacitor and switch modules in parallel. The electrical parameters in short circuit are with a capacitance of 19.2 μF, an inductance of 11.7 nH, a resistance of 4.3 mΩ, and working charging voltage of 60 kV-90 kV. It can be run safely and stable when charged from 60 kV to 90 kV. The vacuum of loading chamber can be up to 10(-2) Pa, and the current waveforms can be shaped by discharging in time sequences of four groups of capacitor and switch modules. CQ-3-MMAF is an adaptive machine with lower maintenance because of its modularization design. The COMSOL Multi-physics® code is used to optimize the structure of some key components and calculate their structural inductance for designs, such as gas switches and cable connectors. Some ramp wave loading experiments were conducted to check and examine the performances of CQ-3-MMAF. Two copper flyer plates were accelerated to about 3.5 km/s in one shot when the working voltage was charged to 70 kV. The velocity histories agree very well. The dynamic experiments of some polymer bonded explosives and phase transition of tin under ramp wave loadings were also conducted. The experimental data show that CQ-3-MMAF can be used to do material dynamics experiments in high rate and low cost shots. Based on this design concept, the peak current of new generators can be increased to 5-6 MA and about 100 GPa ramp stress can be produced on the metallic samples for high pressure physics, and a conceptual design of CQ-5-MMAF was given.

Optimization of loading pressure waveforms for piston driven isentropic compression

Smooth ramp loading with higher pressure amplitude is usually preferred in the isentropic compression experiment (ICE) of condensed materials. Optimizing the pressure waveforms of ICE is important in avoiding any shock wave propagating during ramp loading and raising the peak pressure as high as possible. Most reports on shaping ICE waveforms mainly focused on magnetohydrodynamic numerical simulations; a few used the hydrodynamic theory of isentropic flow. However, some points can be improved. Based on one-dimensional planar isentropic flow theory and regarding the ICE loading pressure exerted on the samples surface as a time-dependent piston boundary condition, a condition for the ramp-to-shock transition as a compression wave propagates in the sample materials, has been derived that forms a necessary condition to avoid such transitions and determines ICE loading pressure waveforms with shorter rise time. A comparison of results is presented for samples of the maximum thickness and for optimized current...