Pegasus liner stability experiments: diagnostics and experimental results

Summary form only given. A series of experiments to compare imploding cylindrical liner performance with Magneto-HydroDynamic (MHD) modeling has been performed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory Pegasus capacitor bank. Several configurations of aluminum liners have been used; some with initial perturbations and some smooth. Instability growth resulting from the perturbations has been observed with high resolution. Load diagnostics included radial X-rays, fiber optic impact pins, and VISAR (Velocity Interferometer for a Surface of Any Reflector). Diagnostic results and comparisons for several liner stability (LS) experiments are presented. In order to observe instability growth, initial perturbations were machined as sine waves on the outer surface of the cylinders. Some experiments had two different wavelength perturbations, one on each half, while others had a smooth half and a perturbed half and still others were completely smooth. Instability growth corresponding to the perturbations was observed on all LS experiments.