T. C. Kaushik

Shock experiments and numerical simulations on low energy portable electrically exploding foil accelerators.

Two low energy (1.6 and 8 kJ) portable electrically exploding foil accelerators are developed for moderately high pressure shock studies at small laboratory scale. Projectile velocities up to 4.0 km/s have been measured on Kapton flyers of thickness 125 microm and diameter 8 mm, using an in-house developed Fabry-Perot velocimeter. An asymmetric tilt of typically few milliradians has been measured in flyers using fiber optic technique. High pressure impact experiments have been carried out on tantalum, and aluminum targets up to pressures of 27 and 18 GPa, respectively. Peak particle velocities at the target-glass interface as measured by Fabry-Perot velocimeter have been found in good agreement with the reported equation of state data. A one-dimensional hydrodynamic code based on realistic models of equation of state and electrical resistivity has been developed to numerically simulate the flyer velocity profiles. The developed numerical scheme is validated against experimental and simulation data reported in literature on such systems. Numerically computed flyer velocity profiles and final flyer velocities have been found in close agreement with the previously reported experimental results with a significant improvement over reported magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Numerical modeling of low energy systems reported here predicts flyer velocity profiles higher than experimental values, indicating possibility of further improvement to achieve higher shock pressures.

Palm top plasma focus device as a portable pulsed neutron source

Development of a palm top plasma focus device generating (5.2 ± 0.8) × 10(4) neutrons∕pulse into 4π steradians with a pulse width of 15 ± 3 ns is reported for the first time. The weight of the system is less than 1.5 kg. The system comprises a compact capacitor bank, a triggered open air spark gap switch, and a sealed type miniature plasma focus tube. The setup is around 14 cm in diameter and 12.5 cm in length. The energy driver for the unit is a capacitor bank of four cylindrical commercially available electrolytic capacitors. Each capacitor is of 2 μF capacity, 4.5 cm in diameter, and 9.8 cm in length. The cost of each capacitor is less than US

Note: A portable pulsed neutron source based on the smallest sealed-type plasma focus device.

10. The internal diameter and the effective length of the plasma focus unit are 2.9 cm and 5 cm, respectively. A DC to DC converter power supply powered by two rechargeable batteries charges the capacitor bank to the desired voltage and also provides a trigger pulse of -15 kV to the spark gap. The maximum energy of operation of the device is 100 J (8 μF, 5 kV, 59 kA) with deuterium gas filling pressure of 3 mbar. The neutrons have also been produced at energy as low as 36 J (3 kV) of operation. The neutron diagnostics are carried out with a bank of (3)He detectors and with a plastic scintillator detector. The device is portable, reusable, and can be operated for multiple shots with a single gas filling.

Note: Printed circuit board based electrically triggered compact rail gap switch.

Development and operation of a portable and compact pulsed neutron source based on sealed-type plasma focus (PF) device are reported. The unit is the smallest sealed-type neutron producing PF device. The effective volume of the PF unit is 33 cm(3) only. A compact size single capacitor (4 μF) is used as the energy driver. A battery based power supply unit is used for charging the capacitor and triggering the spark gap. The PF unit is operated at 10 kV (200 J) and at a deuterium gas filling pressure of 8 mb. The device is operated over a time span of 200 days and the neutron emissions have been observed for 200 shots without changing the gas in between the shots. The maximum yield of this device is 7.8 × 10(4) neutrons/pulse. Beyond 200 shots the yield is below the threshold (1050 neutrons/pulse) of our (3)He detector. The neutron energy is evaluated using time of flight technique and the value is (2.49 ± 0.27) MeV. The measured neutron pulse width is (24 ± 5) ns. Multishot and long duration operations envisage the potentiality of such portable device for repetitive mode of operation.

A 109 neutrons/pulse transportable pulsed D-D neutron source based on flexible head plasma focus unit

An electrically triggered rail gap switch has been designed over a commercially available copper clad fiberglass sheet commonly used in making printed circuit boards for applications requiring compact design and direct integration to parallel plate transmission lines. Switch performance has been investigated in terms of its inductance, jitter, and gap closing time. With an electrode separation of 9.0 mm, it has been found to have an inductance of 6 nH, gap closing time of 5 ns, and jitter of about 4-10 ns measured at 95% of self-breakdown voltage. An application of this switch has been demonstrated as an electrically exploding foil accelerator developed over the same board and velocities up to 1.6 km/s have been achieved on Kapton flyers with diameter of 3.0 mm and thickness of 125 microm using a compact 1 microF capacitor bank.

Feasibility and Performance of a Tapered Helical Pulse-Forming Line-Based Pulse Transformer

A 17 kJ transportable plasma focus (PF) device with flexible transmission lines is developed and is characterized. Six custom made capacitors are used for the capacitor bank (CB). The common high voltage plate of the CB is fixed to a centrally triggered spark gap switch. The output of the switch is coupled to the PF head through forty-eight 5 m long RG213 cables. The CB has a quarter time-period of 4 μs and an estimated current of 506 kA is delivered to the PF device at 17 kJ (60 μF, 24 kV) energy. The average neutron yield measured using silver activation detector in the radial direction is (7.1 ± 1.4) × 10(8) neutrons/shot over 4π sr at 5 mbar optimum D2 pressure. The average neutron yield is more in the axial direction with an anisotropy factor of 1.33 ± 0.18. The average neutron energies estimated in the axial as well as in the radial directions are (2.90 ± 0.20) MeV and (2.58 ± 0.20) MeV, respectively. The flexibility of the PF head makes it useful for many applications where the source orientation and the location are important factors. The influence of electromagnetic interferences from the CB as well as from the spark gap on applications area can be avoided by putting a suitable barrier between the bank and the PF head.

Pressure induced phase transition and thermo-physical properties in LuX (X = N, P)

Conventional pulsed power devices such as Marx generators, Tesla transformers, and cable-based generators are usually bulky and occupy a large volume when used for generating high-voltage pulses of duration longer than 100 ns. Cable-based generators also have the limitation of generating half the charging voltage when delivering the entire energy into a matched load. Inductive energy storage systems provide an alternate and effective scheme to overcome these issues. However, their efficiency depends upon the performance of opening switches. Also, inductive energy storage systems do not typically generate flat-top voltage pulses that are desirable for driving various pulsed power loads. In this paper, a new device, named the tapered helical pulse-forming line-based pulse transformer (THPFL-PT), is designed to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks. The device performs two actions at the same time, i.e., it steps up the input charging voltage, and it generates a flat-top nanosecond voltage pulse. It is developed and characterized at low voltages to verify the feasibility of the concept developed and design parameters. The entire device is compact, with length of about 330 mm. It is capable of generating a voltage pulse of magnitude higher than the charging voltage with a duration of about 100 ns and almost a flat-top profile.

Shock loading characteristics of Zr and Ti metals using dual beam velocimeter

Detailed total energy calculations have been performed in lutetium pnictides (LuX, where X = N, P) to understand their high pressure structural stability. In LuN, the ambient rocksalt type structure (B1 phase) transforms to a tetragonal structure (B10 phase) at ~240 GPa; whereas in LuP the orthorhombic structure (B33, space group Cmcm) emerges as a high pressure structure above 48 GPa. Both the transitions are found to be of first-order type with volume discontinuities of ~6% and 8.2%, respectively. The high pressure phases B10 and B33 are found to be stable up to 400 GPa, respectively. Further, the structural stability predicted from static lattice calculations has been supported by lattice dynamical stability analysis. The present calculations rule out the B1 to B2 (CsCl type) structural phase transitions predicted to occur at 241 GPa in LuN and at 98 GPa in LuP by previous all-electron calculations (Gupta and Bhat 2013 J. Mol. Model 19 5343–54). The temperature dependence of several thermo-physical properties such as volume, bulk modulus, specific heat and thermal expansion coefficient of the rocksalt structure of these compounds calculated in the present study, using quasi-harmonic approximation, awaits confirmation by experimental studies.

Characterization of pulsed (plasma focus) neutron source with image plate and application to neutron radiography

The characteristics of titanium and zirconium metal foils under shock loading have been studied up to 16 GPa and 12 GPa pressure, respectively, using portable electric gun setup as projectile launcher. In these experiments, the capabilities of a single Fabry-Perot velocimeter have been enhanced by implementing it in dual beam mode to record the two velocity profiles on a single streak camera. The measured equation of state data for both the metals have been found to be well in agreement with the reported Hugoniot, within experimental accuracies. A phase transition from α to ω phase has been detected near to 11.4 GPa for titanium and 8.2 GPa for zirconium in the rising part of target-glass interface velocity profile.

Equation of state measurements using single Fabry-Perot velocimeter

Plasma focus device of Mather type developed in house has been used first time for neutron radiography of different objects. The device gives (1.2±0.3) ×109 neutrons per pulse produced by D-D fusion reaction with a pulse width of 50±5 ns. The method involves exposing sample to be radiographed to thermalized D-D neutrons and recording the image on Fuji-film BAS-ND image plates. The thermal neutron component of the moderated beam was estimated using two image plates: a conventional IP for X-rays and gamma rays, and an IP doped with Gd for detecting neutrons.