The Electric Explosion of Conductors in Megagauss Magnetic Fields

Abstract

The results are presented from an experimental study of the explosion of copper conductors performed at ~2 MA current pulse with a rise time of 100 ns using the MIG generator. Using a HSFC Pro optical camera, large-scale instabilities with wavelengths of 0.2–0.5 mm are recorded on the surface of the conductor. The instabilities are tongue-shaped ejections of plasma expanding at the speed of sound in the direction opposite the gradient of the magnetic field. The obtained data are analyzed using two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulation. It is shown the emergence of the observed structure was likely due to the growth of flute instabilities.