Cylindrical metal liner implosion at extremes of pressure and material velocity on an intense pulsed power facility-FP-2.

Highly precise and controllable liner implosions driven by a pulsed power facility have extensive applications in exploration of advanced hydrodynamics at the extremes of pressure and material velocity. In this paper, we describe a new pulsed power facility developed in China named FP-2 (a series of facilities for Fluid Physics investigations-the second generation) for liner implosions. Benefiting from the reliable and stable operation of 48 rail gap switches, the FP-2 facility can steadily transmit a current of 10.5 MA to a dummy load of 10 nH in the case of a charging voltage of ±40 kV. The first quarter cycle is 5.5 µs, and the percentage shot-to-shot deviation of the current history is less than 1%. When the aluminum liners of 60 mm in height and 0.6 mm in thickness are adopted, the maximum velocity of 4.5 and 7.5 km/s has been achieved with the liner diameter of 90 and 60 mm, respectively, at the diameter of 10 mm. Experimental results show that the percentage shot-to-shot deviation of the liner velocity history is less than 1%. As impact on the target, the maximum of the impact time deviation measured from four perpendicular fiber pins is less than 20 ns. Due to the modular design of FP-2, it is convenient for a future upgrade. The confirmation of high-quality implosion on FP-2, such as high repeatability, high reliability, and high symmetry, makes it a bright prospect to explore the advanced hydrodynamic problems at extremes of pressure and material velocity in the future.