Use of an electrothermal gun for melt layer erosion studies

Summary form only given. The current research effort is aimed at measuring the thickness of the resolidified material following sample exposure to a pulsed plasma. Materials under investigation are of interest to the electric launcher as well as the fusion reactor communities. An electrothermal plasma gun is used to simulate the operational exposure. Experiments are conducted using the electrothermal (ET) gun PIPE as a high energy pulsed plasma source. PIPE produces a high-density (10/sup 25/ to 10/sup 26/ m/sup -3/) low-temperature (1 to 3 eV) plasma for pulse lengths on the order of 100 /spl mu/s. PIPE is powered by a 340 /spl mu/F, 10 kV capacitor with a maximum discharge energy of 17 kJ. The experiments discussed in this paper were conducted at discharge energies between 0.06 and 2.43 kJ. The materials currently under investigation are copper (OFHC), aluminum (2042 Al), and stainless steel (316SS). The samples are cylindrical, 12.7 mm in length, and 4.76 mm in diameter. The samples are instrumented with two 0.508 mm sheathed type-K thermocouples, which are embedded in the sample. Following exposure the samples are bisected axially and the thickness of the resolidified material is measured using microscopy. A thickness of resolidified material on an aluminum sample in excess of 10 /spl mu/m is observed. Current results will be discussed.