The Z accelerator [R. B. Spielman, W. A. Stygar, J. F. Seamen et al., Proceedings of the 11th International Pulsed Power Conference, Baltimore, MD, 1997, edited by G. Cooperstein and I. Vitkovitsky (IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, 1997), Vol. 1, p. 709] at Sandia National Laboratories delivers ∼20MA load currents to create high magnetic fields (>1000T) and high pressures (megabar to gigabar). In a z-pinch configuration, the magnetic pressure (the Lorentz force) supersonically implodes a plasma created from a cylindrical wire array, which at stagnation typically generates a plasma with energy densities of about 10MJ∕cm3 and temperatures >1keV at 0.1% of solid density. These plasmas produce x-ray energies approaching 2MJ at powers >200TW for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and high energy density physics (HEDP) experiments. In an alternative configuration, the large magnetic pressure directly drives isentropic compression experiments to pressures >3Mbar and accelerates flyer plates to >30km∕s for equation of state (EOS) experiments at pressures up to 10Mbar in aluminum. Development of multidimensional radiation-magnetohydrodynamic codes, coupled with more accurate material models (e.g., quantum molecular dynamics calculations with density functional theory), has produced synergy between validating the simulations and guiding the experiments. Z is now routinely used to drive ICF capsule implosions (focusing on implosion symmetry and neutron production) and to perform HEDP experiments (including radiation-driven hydrodynamic jets, EOS, phase transitions, strength of materials, and detailed behavior of z-pinch wire-array initiation and implosion). This research is performed in collaboration with many other groups from around the world. A five year project to enhance the capability and precision of Z, to be completed in 2007, will result in x-ray energies of nearly 3MJ at x-ray powers >300TW.

This paper discusses the steady-state operation of phase-shift modulated dual-bridge series resonant converter (DBSRC) intended for dc/dc power bidirectional control over a wide range of input and output voltages. The analysis, developed here for the most general case of three independent phase-shift control angles, demonstrates the existence of minimum current trajectories in the 3-D control space along which the DBSRC cell can deliver any admissible power level with minimum tank circulating current. At nonunity conversion ratios, minimum current operation prevents the DBSRC output bridge from experiencing severe hard-switching losses, substantially reducing the effort normally required by auxiliary zero-voltage switching assistance circuitry, and outperforming the efficiency of conventional one-angle modulation approaches especially at light load. The developed approach is validated via computer simulations and experimental tests on a 1-kW DBSRC prototype. Tests performed at a nonunity voltage conversion ratio indicate a marked light-load efficiency improvement with respect to the conventional one-angle modulation, confirming the importance of the minimum current operation when the converter is expected to operate with programmable output voltages or under wide input voltage variations

Detonation fronts in solid high explosives have been examined through measurements of particle velocity histories resulting from the interaction of a detonation wave with a thin metal foil backed by a water window. Using a high time resolution velocity-interferometer system, experiments were conducted on three explosives—a TATB (1,3,5-triamino-trinitrobenzene)-based explosive called PBX-9502, TNT (2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene), and CP (2-{5-cyanotetrazolato} pentaamminecobalt {III} perchlorate). In all cases, detonation-front rise times were found to be less than the 300 ps resolution of the interferometer system. The thermodynamic state in the front of the detonation wave was estimated to be near the unreacted state determined from an extrapolation of low-pressure unreacted Hugoniot data for both TNT and PBX-9502 explosives. Computer calculations based on an ignition and growth model of a Zeldovich–von Neumann–Doering (ZND) detonation wave show good agreement with the measurements. By using the unreacted Hugoniot and a JWL equation of state for the reaction products, we estimated the initial reaction rate in the high explosive after the detonation wave front interacted with the foil to be 40 μs−1 for CP, 60 μs−1 for TNT, and 80 μs−1 for PBX-9502. The shape of the profiles indicates the reaction rate decreases as reaction proceeds.

An optically recording velocity interferometer system, called ORVIS, has been developed to measure particle velocity histories in shock wave experiments on condensed matter. The interferometer fringe motion is recorded with a high speed electronic streak camera, rather than with photomultiplier tubes and oscilloscopes as in previous interferometry systems. With this approach, the particle velocity of a witness foil in a detonation wave experiment was measured with 300-ps time resolution. We believe that 20-ps time resolution can be achieved with this technique which would represent an improvement of two orders of magnitude over previous measurement techniques.

The emf produced by 5-μm-thick foil thermocouples when subjected to shock loading was studied over a stress range from 0.5 to 10 GPa. Thermocouples of either copper and constantan or chromel and alumel were embedded in the host materials, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), Epon 828 epoxy, single-crystal Al2O3, or vitreous SiO2. The observed emf history rises to a plateau in a period that varied from less than 100 ns for Al2O3 to about 500 ns for PMMA. Temperatures inferred from the constant-voltage portion of the records using standard thermocouple tables (corrected for pressure) compare favorably with calculated temperatures for PMMA and epoxy below 2.0 and 4.5 GPa, respectively. Above these threshold stresses, the observed temperatures increase rapidly with compression, which may indicate an exothermic reaction. Inferred temperatures for the two types of thermocouples are in good agreement. The shape of the response history, and agreement with predicted temperatures for PMMA and epoxy, indicate that the thermocouple and host material come to thermal equilibrium during the transient portion of the response. In the elastic materials Al2O3 and SiO2, the observed temperatures are better correlated with temperatures predicted for shock compression of the thermocouple materials than those predicted for the host materials, indicating that thermal equilibration is not achieved in the available test time.