Interaction of radiatively cooled plasma jets with static gas and collimated supersonic gas jets
POSTER
Abstract
The MAGPIE generator (1.4 MA, 240 ns) drives an ablative plasma from a thin Al foil. The convergence of the plasma from the foil on its axis leads to the formation of a supersonic plasma jet, with a typical velocity of $\sim $100 km/s. Jet-ambient interactions are studied either by injecting a highly-collimated, supersonic, cold gas jet above the foil using a nozzle, or by enclosing the foil inside a cell filled with neutral, static gas. In both cases, the plasma jet creates several shock features in the ambient medium. Experimental results from varied ambient parameters such as gas pressure and composition are presented together with 3-D MHD simulations.
*Work supported at AASC by DOE SBIR Grant DE-FG02-08ER85030, and at Imperial College by EPSRC Grant No. EP/G001324/1, by the NNSA under DOE Cooperative Agreements No. DE-F03-02NA00057 and No. DE-SC-0001063, and by a Marie Curie ERG grant.