PHYSICS OF PLASMAS 12, 092701 2005

Hybrid simulation of the Z-pinch instabilities for proles generated during wire array implosion in the Saturn pulsed power generator
V. I. Sotnikova
University of Nevada at Reno, Nevada 89557

J. N. Leboeuf
University of California at Los Angeles, California 90095

C. Deeney and C. A. Coverdale

Sandia National Laboratory, New Mexico 87185

P. Hellinger, P. Travnicek, and V. Fiala

Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Prague 4, Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia 141 31

Received 8 April 2005; accepted 15 July 2005; published online 26 August 2005 Experimental evidence suggests that the energy balance between processes in play during wire array implosions is not well understood. In fact the radiative yields can exceed by several times the implosion kinetic energy. A possible explanation is that the coupling from magnetic energy to kinetic energy as magnetohydrodynamic plasma instabilities develop provides additional energy. It is thus important to model the instabilities produced in the after implosion stage of the wire array in order to determine how the stored magnetic energy can be connected with the radiative yields. To this aim three-dimensional hybrid simulations have been performed. They are initialized with plasma radial density proles, deduced in recent experiments C. Deeney et al., Phys. Plasmas 6, 3576 1999 that exhibited large x-ray yields, together with the corresponding magnetic eld proles. Unlike previous work, these proles do not satisfy pressure balance and differ substantially from those of a Bennett equilibrium. They result in faster growth with an associated transfer of magnetic energy to plasma motion and hence kinetic energy. 2005 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2033623
I. INTRODUCTION

Wire array implosion experiments in Z pinches evolve through four fundamental phases: initiation, expansion and precursor, implosion, and stagnation and thermalization. During initiation, the current penetrates the wires and begins to heat them. Wire expansion and ablation occur during the second phase and precursor plasmas can form on the axis of the Z pinch. As the bulk of the material moves toward the axis, also known as the implosion phase, the growth of instabilities, such as RayleighTaylor, can become a major factor. The nal phase, stagnation and thermalization, is where effects such as opacity play a role and usually corresponds to the phase after peak radiated power is observed. Here, the nal stage, stagnation and thermalization, is simply referred to as the after implosion stage. A typical sequence of events is shown in Fig. 1 for one of the experiments showcased in this paper with 180 wires in the array where the three phases of implosion, stagnation, and after implosion are graphically indicated. There is evidence from many such experiments that the energy balance in wire array Z-pinch implosions is not well understood. In fact the radiated yields can exceed by several times the estimated implosion kinetic energy.13 Peterson et al.4 had success explaining additional heating of the plasma from a two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic MHD point of view. These calculations indicated that the spreading
a

Electronic mail: sotnikov@physics.unr.edu

of mass during the development of implosion instabilities e.g., magneto-RayleighTaylor resulted in a decrease of the peak radial kinetic energy but in a much larger increase in energy deposition due to pdV work on axis, and in the continuous acceleration of mass from the spikes. Other authors have studied the energy deposition from enhanced Ohmic heating2,3 and the formation of magnetic bubbles.5,6 Electrostatic turbulence has also been considered in the corona of Z-pinch plasmas where it could cause heating of the electron distribution.7 Yet another avenue can be explored, that of the transfer of magnetic energy to kinetic energy via the development of MHD instabilities on axis. In this respect, we model the instabilities produced in the stagnation phase of wire array implosions in order to nd out how the magnetic energy stored in and surrounding the onaxis plasma can be dissipated. To perform these calculations, we start with radial proles of plasma density deduced from recent experiments8,9 at stagnation see Fig. 1 together with the corresponding magnetic eld proles. The latter are obtained under the assumption that the current density is proportional to the radial plasma density with constant axial drift velocity across the prole the same assumption is used for the Bennett equilibrium prole , and that all the current ows through this region. These proles do not satisfy pressure balance in the system and differ substantially from those of the Bennett equilibrium, where pressure balance is satised. We are using a hybrid code in its three-dimensional 3D version, the details of which can be found in Ref. 10.
2005 American Institute of Physics

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Phys. Plasmas 12, 092701 2005 TABLE I. Estimated parameters for the stagnated Z pinch. Quantity Ni m1 B0 T R0 m i m R0 / i
ci i

Ti = Te 1.4 1019 2000 103 6 107 2000 0.005

Ti = 20 keV 1.4 1019 2000 103 4 106 250 1

FIG. 1. Typical sequence of events in the experiment with 180 wires in the array with the three phases of implosion, stagnation, and after implosion indicated.

This code is described briey in Sec. II. In Sec. III, we review the experiment and describe the analysis of the radial proles. In Sec. IV, we present the results of the calculations, and we make our conclusions in Sec. V.
II. HYBRID MODEL AND NUMERICAL DETAILS OF THE CALCULATIONS

The 3D version of the hybrid simulation model is based on the CAM-CL algorithm.11 In this model, the plasma is described by a combination of kinetic ions and uid electrons. The resulting set of equations10 is sufcient to investigate development of the global MHD instabilities in Z-pinch plasmas with nonideal MHD effects such as the Hall term10 FLR and LLR nite and large Larmor radius .1215 In addition axial magnetic elds are taken into account. In the hybrid simulations, the azimuthal magnetic eld is scaled to B0 , the magnetic eld at the radius of the plasma cylinder R0, and the density to n0, the maximum value of the density in respective radial proles. The units of space, time, and velocity are collisionless skin depth c / pi, inverse of the ion cyclotron frequency 1 / ci, and Alfvn speed VA, respectively. For a typical Z pinch with n0 5 1020 cm3 and B0 20 MG, these parameters would be 47 m, 0.127 ns, and 37.5 cm/ s. All other normalized quantities are also referenced to n0 and B0. The elds and particle moments are Ny determined on a 3D grid with Nx = Lx / x = 50 = Ly / y = 50 Nz = Lz / z = 100 points or cells. There is a maximum of 128 particles per cell for a scaled peak density of n0 = 1 and the total number of particles is 2 516 400 for the simulation box size used. In the cases of interest here, the initial particle distribution is not uniform and follows the density prole set by the type of pinch equilibrium used, e.g., Bennett, or that obtained from experiments. The simulation box is taken to be periodic in the axial z direction. The simulation resolves only the grid points inside a cylinder aligned with the z axis and centered in the middle of the box with radius R0. The electric eld outside that cylinder is set to zero, and particles that cross the cylinder

boundary are reected back. The time step for the particle advance is dt = 0.025/ i, while the magnetic eld B is advanced with a smaller time step, dtB = dt / 10. Simulation studies were carried out with the cylinder radius set to R0 = 50 c / pi, through R0 = Lx =Nx x = Ly / 2 y z = 2c / pi, which with Nx = 50 and grid spacing x corresponds to a Hall parameter value of H = c / pi / R0 = 0.01. The simulations have been performed without axial magnetic eld. Every mode in the excited wave spectrum has its own time necessary for the nonlinear saturation process to start. For instance, modes with larger axial wave numbers kz have larger linear growth rates and as a result their saturation times are smaller. To measure the linear growth rates in the hybrid simulations, we have therefore chosen time slices which correspond to the linear stage of instability development for each of the modes of interest. Moreover, to determine the growth rate of the particular mode with given axial kz and azimuthal m wave numbers, we rst transform the density to cylindrical coordinates n t , x , y , z = n t , r , , z . Then we make a Fourier transformation of the last two coordinates and z to get nft t , r , m , kz . Finally, for different r, m, and kz we determine the growth rate using the linear t of ln nft t during the exponential stage of the wave amplitude growth. In the hybrid simulations presented in what follows, the source of energy for the instabilities is the axial current, which supports the azimuthal magnetic eld. Unstable modes grow from noise, which in the hybrid simulations is mostly due to random seeding of the initial Maxwellian velocity distribution of the particle ions. Along with the development of sausage and kink instabilities in the system, magnetic energy is decreasing and kinetic energy is growing in the initial stage. Throughout the simulations, the total energy conserves to an accuracy better than 3%. The experiments show that the behavior of the wire arrays depends strongly on the number of wires in the initial wire array load. The goals of our study are to investigate the stability of Z-pinch proles generated during wire array implosions, to analyze the growth rates of sausage and kink modes, to characterize the time evolution of magnetic and kinetic energies, and to typify the spectra of density perturbations excited in the after implosion stage for different wire loads. This allows us to determine how the development of wave turbulence in the after implosion stage can be connected with the effectiveness of x-ray production in the implosion stage.

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FIG. 2. Radial proles of a pinch density and b magnetic eld deduced from observations in the 56 wires Saturn experiment.

III. SATURN LONG IMPLOSION WIRE ARRAY EXPERIMENTS

A series of wire array experiments with aluminum wires have been conducted on the Saturn pulsed power generator. For these experiments, Saturn was operating in the long implosion mode,1 that is, the current peak of 8 MA was reached in 230 ns rather than the more typical 50 ns. In this mode of operation, the power feeds are very well insulated and this is evidenced by the load and magnetically insulated transmission line current measurements see Fig. 5 of Ref. 1 .

One series of experiments consisted of a scan of wire number in the array from 32 to 282 wires while holding the implosion time constant. These experiments led to the observation of an optimum number of wires,9 plus the observation of x-ray yields some three times greater than the calculated kinetic energy.1,3,5 The other scan involved the variation in array mass for a given diameter 40 mm . The results of the second scan, along with those of tungsten, all indicated signicantly more radiated energy than could be inferred from zero-dimensional implosion estimates. In the case of the wire

FIG. 3. Perturbed density spectra or amplitudes of density perturbations as a function of azimuthal mode number m on the horizontal axis and axial wave vector kz on the vertical axis at scaled time t = 30 for a 56 wires, b 180 wires, and c 282 wires in the array. The darker patches correspond to larger amplitudes.

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FIG. 4. Time evolution in descending order of upper curve total energy, middle curve magnetic energy, and lower curve kinetic energy, normalized to the total energy at scaled time t = 0, for a 56 wires, b 180 wires, and c 282 wires in the array.

number scan, detailed spectra were recorded from these wire array implosions. The spectra came from the K-shell of aluminum and magnesium, since the particular aluminum alloy contained both in the ratio of 95% to 5%, respectively. Apruzese et al. performed detailed spectral analysis that allowed the radial proles of temperature and density, reported in Ref. 8, to be calculated. These will be the basis for the analysis in Sec. IV. Essentially, the ion density proles were peaked on-axis at values between 3 6 1020 cm3, and the electron temperature proles were also centrally peaked at values between 500 and 800 eV. These proles typically contained less than 10% of the initial mass, and we can estimate some of the quantities of interest from these measurements.

In Table I we present two sets of estimated parameters based on two different ion temperatures: in descending order ion line density Ni, magnetic eld strength B0, pinch radius R0, ion Larmor radius i, ratio of pinch radius, and ion Larmor radius, ion collision time i normalized to ion cyclotron frequency ci i. The rst set is where Ti = Te and the other where Ti is 20 keV as assumed in the spectral analysis.8 In both cases, Te is 600 eV. Time-resolved analysis for one shot indicated that the density proles would atten in time Fig. 12 of Ref. 8 . Building on previous work10 where a Bennett equilibrium was the assumed starting point for simulations, we decided to use the measured proles from these

FIG. 5. Dimensionless growth rates as a function of scaled axial wavevector kz of a the sausage, m = 0, and b the kink, m = 1, modes, for the 56 wires array.

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FIG. 6. Dimensionless growth rates as a function of scaled axial wave vector kz of a the sausage, m = 0, and b the kink, m = 1, modes, for the 180 wires array.

experiments to initiate 3D calculations of the on-axis plasma development.

IV. HYBRID SIMULATIONS WITH INITIAL PROFILES PRODUCED BY WIRE ARRAY IMPLOSION

In this section we present results of 3D hybrid simulations with initial proles for density obtained from experiments with imploding wire arrays, performed in the Saturn pulsed-power generator described earlier. Since measurement of actual current proles is extremely difcult in stagnated Z-pinch plasmas, we had to infer current densities for this work. For the purpose of our calculations, we will assume that the current density follows the plasma ion density, with a constant drift velocity. This is also what is assumed in Bennett equilibria. The aim here is to determine what type of plasma motion and wave turbulence can be obtained in the stagnation phase of array implosion and how this phase can be affected by the implosion stage, i.e., by the differences in the stagnated proles caused by the initial number of wires.

Three setups were analyzed. The rst was generated from the implosion of a wire array with 56 wires, the second with 180 wires, and the third with 282 wires. The x-ray output with 56 wires was the lowest among the three setups under investigation, while x-ray production in the implosion stage was the most efcient for an array of 180 wires. The initial density prole as a function of radius produced after the implosion of the array of 56 wires see Ref. 1, Fig. 2 a is displayed in Fig. 2 a . The corresponding radial prole of the azimuthal magnetic eld obtained under the assumption that the current density is proportional to the radial density prole is shown in Fig. 2 b . Density is normalized to the maximum density n0 in the center and magnetic eld is normalized to the magnetic eld B0 at radius R0 of the plasma cylinder. The radial coordinate r is normalized to the diameter of the plasma cylinder 2R0. Proles deduced from the experiments are also used to initialize the hybrid simulations for arrays with 180 and 282 wires. They are similar enough to warrant not displaying them here yet un-

FIG. 7. Dimensionless growth rates as a function of scaled axial wave vector kz of a the sausage, m = 0, and b the kink, m = 1, modes, for the 282 wires array.

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FIG. 8. Color Visualization of the Z-pinch instability through 3D plots of column density from hybrid simulations at scaled times for the onset of instability: a t = 33 for 56 wires, b t = 40 for 180 wires, and c t = 40 for 282 wires.

like enough to yield different linear and nonlinear results as is discussed next. The perturbed density spectra or amplitudes of density perturbations as a function of axial wave vector scaled to c / pi vertical axis and azimuthal mode number horizontal axis at scaled time t = 30, in units of inverse ion gyrofrequency ci,, which corresponds to 3.8 ns after stagnation, are shown in Fig. 3 for all three numbers of wires in the array. The darker patches in Fig. 3 correspond to larger perturbations. The three setups result in the excitation of sausage and kink modes. Signicant nonlinear broadening of the spectrum in axial wave vector and azimuthal mode number is also apparent. The time evolution of the total, kinetic and magnetic energies is presented in Fig. 4, also for all three numbers of wires. The calculations extend to t = 100, in units of inverse ion gyrofrequency ci, or 12.57 ns after stagnation. In all three cases, the total energy in the system upper curve is conserved to the few percent level during the simulations. The kinetic energy lower curve starts to grow at the very early stages and the source for this growth is apparently the stored magnetic energy middle curve in the system which decreases accordingly for all three setups. The growth rates of the m = 0 and m = 1 modes measured in the linear phase of the simulations are displayed in Fig. 5

for the array with 56 wires. The dimensionless growth rate in Fig. 5 is normalized to Vti / R0 where Vti is ion thermal speed, which translates into Vti / R0 4.6 107 s1 for the experimental parameters of Ref. 8. The same normalization is also used for the growth rates displayed in Figs. 6 and 7. Figure 5 shows that due to the absence of pressure balance these growth rates are much larger than those produced with Bennett equilibrium proles. This is also true of the growth rates displayed in Fig. 6 for the array with 180 wires. Comparison of the growth rates in Fig. 5 for 56 wires and in Fig. 6 does, however, show that the instability develops more slowly when the x-ray output during the wire array implosion has its maximum with 180 wires in the array. From comparison of the plots for energy evolution with time in Fig. 4 b for 180 wires and Fig. 4 a for 56 wires, it is clearly seen that there is less magnetic energy stored in the system in the after implosion stage for the case with a larger number of wires in the array. This is conrmed by simulation results with 282 wires in the array. The magnetic eld energy of Fig. 4 c is slightly larger in comparison with the 180 wires simulation, but still amounts to less energy stored compared to the array with 56 wires. The instability also develops more slowly in this case compared to that with 56 wires. In fact, the growth rates of Fig. 7 are slightly larger for the m = 0 mode, and practically the same for the kink mode in com-

FIG. 9. Color Visualization of the Z-pinch instability through 3D plots of column density from hybrid simulations at scaled times in the nonlinear stage of the instability: a t = 50 for 56 wires, b t = 60 for 180 wires, and c t = 60 for 282 wires.

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FIG. 10. Color Visualization of the Z-pinch instability through 3D plots of column density from hybrid simulation at scaled times in the disruption phase of the instability: a t = 80 for 56 wires, b t = 90 for 182 wires, and c t = 80 for 282 wires.

parison to those of Fig. 6 for 180 wires, both being smaller than those with 56 wires in the array. Overall in the simulations, the speed with which the stored magnetic energy is transferred to the ion kinetic energy is smaller for the arrays with a larger number of wires. This indirectly supports the suggestion that in the process of wire array implosion the increase in ion kinetic energy is connected not only with the J B force, but also with generation of MHD turbulence. This is when magnetic energy in the system is transferred to plasma motion. Consequently in the after implosion stage there is less magnetic energy stored in the system and we observe development of instabilities in the plasma column with smaller growth rates. This is reinforced by 3D visualizations of the column densities at different scaled times in the simulations presented in Figs. 810, for 56, 180, and 282 wires in the array, respectively. The times have been chosen so that they illustrate different phases of instability: its onset, the nonlinear phase, and disruption. In each gure, panel a corresponds

to the 56 wires case, while panels b and c correspond to the cases with 180 wires and 282 wires, respectively. Comparison of each panel, a , b , or c , at each respective time of onset Fig. 8 , at each representative time in the nonlinear phase Fig. 9 and at each distinct time of disruption Fig. 10 shows that the 56 wires case exhibits greater distortion of the plasma column. This is but a vivid illustration that the instability does indeed develop more slowly with a greater number of wires in the array. The above calculations all have signicant m = 1 growth due to the peak current density following the peak electron density . Has the m = 1 been seen experimentally? Detailed measurements of m = 1 growth were made by Choi et al. in a gas embedded Z pinch.16 In the reported aluminum experiments no clear m = 1 behavior was observed. Two explanations are possible: 1 the current is not centrally peak, or 2 m = 1 instabilities could be multiple laments below the spatial resolution of the cameras. As shown in Fig. 11, the after peak radiation pinhole images have a lot of structure even

FIG. 11. Color Experimental timeresolved images 800 eV of the stagnated aluminum Z-pinch implosion with 180 wires with the image times shown. Peak x-ray power was at 160 ns. TI denotes time-integrated images at two different gains. The images from 163 to 169 ns show evidence of m = 1 like behavior.

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though the outer radius is not growing signicantly. Also, the late time development shown in the calculations becomes very nonlinear so a classic m = 0 instability may not be seen. As shown in Ref. 15, the m = 1 perturbation can grow as an internal mode. Since the proles measured by Apruzese et al.8 only account for 10% of the imploded mass, it is very possible for an m = 1 development to be masked. Having made these caveats, it is important to point out that after peak radiation m = 1 instabilities have been observed with tungsten on Saturn long implosion time wire array experiments. Figure 11 of Ref. 1 shows the clear development of an m = 1 instability. Unfortunately, since we cannot diagnose the stagnated conditions in the tungsten pinch it is very difcult to say why aluminum is different than tungsten.
V. CONCLUSION

stability growth rates. For the smaller currents I 0.3I0 results were different. The simulations did not produce pinching of the current carrying plasma cylinder. All of these simulation results provide plausible instability-related mechanisms in support of the different experimental observations with varying number of wires in the arrays. In addition, both experimental and simulation results suggest that investigation of the after implosion stage of wire array implosions may provide an effective tool for optimization of the total x-ray yield from wire array Z pinches.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FC52-01NV14050 at UNR, Grant No. DEFG02-04ER54740 at UCLA and Contract No. DE-AC0494AL85000 at Sandia National Laboratories.
C. Deeney, C. A. Coverdale, M. R. Douglas, K. W. Struve, R. B. Spielman, W. A. Stygar, D. L. Peterson, N. F. Roderick, M. G. Haines, F. N. Beg, and J. Ruiz-Camacho, Phys. Plasmas 6, 3576 1999 . 2 J. L. Giuliani, Jr., J. E. Roberson, C. Deeney , T. Nash, R. R. Prassad, and M. Krishnan, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transf. 44, 471 1990 . 3 K. G. Whitney, J. W. Thornhill, J. P. Apruzese, J. Davis, C. Deeney, and C. A. Coverdale, Phys. Plasmas 11, 3700 2004 . 4 D. L. Peterson, R. L. Bowers, K. D. McLenithan, C. Deeney, G. A. Chandler, R. B. Spielman, M. K. Matzen, and N. F. Roderick, Phys. Plasmas 5, 3302 1998 . 5 A. L. Velikovich, J. Davis, J. W. Thornhill, J. L. Giuliani, Jr., L. I. Rudakov, and C. Deeney, Phys. Plasmas 7, 3265 2000 . 6 L. I. Rudakov, A. L. Velikovich, J. Davis, J. W. Thornhill, J. L. Giuliani, Jr., and C. Deeney, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 3326 2000 . 7 R. E. Terry, Phys. Plasmas 1, 2189 1994 . 8 J. P. Apruzese, J. W. Thornhill, K. G. Whitney, J. Davis, C. Deeney, and C. A. Coverdale, Phys. Plasmas 8, 3799 2001 . 9 C. A. Coverdale, C. Deeney, M. R. Douglas, J. P. Apruzese, K. G. Whitney, J. W. Thornhill, and J. Davis, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 065001 2002 . 10 V. I. Sotnikov, B. S. Bauer, J. N. Leboeuf, P. Hellinger, P. Travnicek, and V. Fiala, Phys. Plasmas 11, 1897 2004 . 11 A. P. Matthews, J. Comput. Phys. 112, 102 1994 . 12 V. I. Sotnikov, I. Paraschiv, V. Makhin, B. S. Bauer, J. N. Leboeuf, and J. M. Dawson, Phys. Plasmas 9, 913 2002 . 13 S. W. Channon, M. Coppins, and T. D. Arber, Phys. Plasmas 6, 3890 1999 . 14 M. Coppins, D. J. Bond, and M. G. Haines, Phys. Fluids 27, 2886 1984 . 15 H. M. Davies, A. E. Dangor, and M. Coppins, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 145004 2001 . 16 P. Choi, M. Coppins, A. E. Dangor, and M. B. Favre, Nucl. Fusion 28, 1771 1988 .
1

The Saturn experiments show that the behavior of the wire arrays depends strongly on the number of wires in the initial wire array load. The hybrid simulations demonstrate that the absence of pressure balance in initial density and azimuthal magnetic eld proles generated in the process of wire array implosions leads to the rapid growth of sausage and kink modes. When the number of imploding wires is 56, the energy stored in the magnetic eld in the after implosion phase has it maximum and this results in the maximum growth rates for the sausage m = 0 and kink m = 1 modes in the simulated plasma column, produced in the after implosion stage. When the number of imploding wires is 180 the magnetic eld energy has its minimum. The growth rates of the sausage and kink modes in this case also have their minima. With 282 wires, the magnetic eld energy is slightly larger in comparison with the 180 wires simulation. This results in slightly larger growth rate for the m = 0 mode and practically the same growth rate for the kink mode, both still lower than the growth rates in the 56 wires simulations. As yet another data point, we have also performed hybrid simulations of the same wire array loads with the same density proles, but with smaller total current through the plasma cylinder. For the total currents larger than 0.3 of the maximum current I0 I 0.3I0 results were similar to that obtained with the maximum current I0, but with smaller in-

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