Theoretical and experimental comparisons of Gamble II argon gas puff experiments

Summary form only given. A one-dimensional radiative magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) analysis of an imploding argon gas puff plasma was performed. The calculations were set up to approximate the conditions of a series of argon gun puff experiments that were carried out on the NRL Gamble II generator. Annular gas puffs (2.5-cm diameter) imploded with a 1.2-MA peak driving current for different initial argon mass loadings. Comparisons were made with the experimental results for implosion times, K, L-shell X-ray emission, and energy coupled from the generator to the plasma load. The purpose of these calculations was to provide a foundation from which a variety of physical phenomena which influence the power and total energy of the X-ray emission could be analyzed