The Electromagnetic Energy Conversion in the Processes of $Z$ -Pinch Implosions at the “Qiang Guang I” Facility

In the processes of implosions of argon gas-puff and tungsten wire-array Z-pinches at the ldquoQiang Guang Irdquo facility, the delivered electrical energy, inductance, and its relevant stored energy, and the effective work done by the Lorentz force, as well as the effects of the load type and its parameters on them, are investigated by making use of the measured current and voltage. The effective work becomes largest when using a wire array of 8-mm diameter with a fixed wire number of 32. For a given diameter of the wire array, the effective work becomes larger if the load consists of more wires. A 0-D model was used to optimize the mass per unit length for the wire array at the ldquoQiang Guang Irdquo facility on 1.6-MA current level. The calculated results show that the tungsten wire array with 8-mm diameter should be a suitable load for this generator. It is consistent with the analyzed results based on electromagnetic energy conversion, as well as with the measured results of X-ray yield in wire-array Z-pinches at the facility.