Wire dynamics model of the implosion of nested and planar wire arrays

Abstract

This paper presents the wire dynamics model (WDM), which can effectively replace the generic 0D (zero-dimensional) model in simulation of the implosions of arbitrary shaped wire arrays, including high-wire-number nested and planar array loads at multi-MA generators. Fast and inexpensive WDM modeling can predict the array implosion time and the rate of thermalization of the kinetic energy, and can estimate the timing of the x-ray pulse. Besides serving the purposes of the design and optimization of the wire array loads of complex configurations, the WDM reproduces the specific features of the wire array implosion dynamics due to the inductive current transfer, which makes the WDM a valuable amplification of the magnetohydrodynamic models.