Search Results (3 total)

We have developed a diagnostic system that measures the spectrally integrated (i.e. the total) energy and power radiated by a pulsed blackbody x-ray source. The total-energy-and-power (TEP) diagnostic system is optimized for blackbody temperatures between 50 and 350 eV. The system can view apertured sources that radiate energies and powers as high as 2 MJ and 200 TW, respectively, and has been successfully tested at 0.84 MJ and 73 TW on the Z pulsed-power accelerator. The TEP system consists of two pinhole arrays, two silicon-diode detectors, and two thin-film nickel bolometers. Each of the two pinhole arrays is paired with a single silicon diode. Each array consists of a 38×38 square array of 10-μm-diameter pinholes in a 50-μm-thick tantalum plate. The arrays achromatically attenuate the x-ray flux by a factor of ∼1800. The use of such arrays for the attenuation of soft x rays was first proposed by Turner and co-workers [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 70, 656 (1999)]. The attenuated flux from each array illuminates its associated diode; the diode’s output current is recorded by a data-acquisition system with 0.6-ns time resolution. The arrays and diodes are located 19 and 24 m from the source, respectively. Because the diodes are designed to have an approximately flat spectral sensitivity, the output current from each diode is proportional to the x-ray power. The nickel bolometers are fielded at a slightly different angle from the array-diode combinations, and view (without pinhole attenuation) the same x-ray source. The bolometers measure the total x-ray energy radiated by the source and—on every shot—provide an in situ calibration of the array-diode combinations. Two array-diode pairs and two bolometers are fielded to reduce random uncertainties. An analytic model (which accounts for pinhole-diffraction effects) of the sensitivity of an array-diode combination is presented.

We have conducted a series of experiments designed to measure the flashover strength of various azimuthally symmetric 45° vacuum-insulator configurations. The principal objective of the experiments was to identify a configuration with a flashover strength greater than that of the standard design, which consists of a 45° polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) insulator between flat electrodes. The thickness d and circumference C of the insulators tested were held constant at 4.318 and 95.74 cm, respectively. The peak voltage applied to the insulators ranged from 0.8 to 2.2 MV. The rise time of the voltage pulse was 40–60 ns; the effective pulse width [as defined in Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 7, 070401 (2004)] was on the order of 10 ns. Experiments conducted with flat aluminum electrodes demonstrate that the flashover strength of a crosslinked polystyrene (Rexolite) insulator is (18±7)% higher than that of PMMA. Experiments conducted with a Rexolite insulator and an anode plug, i.e., an extension of the anode into the insulator, demonstrate that a plug can increase the flashover strength by an additional (44±11)%. The results are consistent with the Anderson model of anode-initiated flashover, and confirm previous measurements. It appears that a Rexolite insulator with an anode plug can, in principle, increase the peak electromagnetic power that can be transmitted across a vacuum interface by a factor of [(1.18)(1.44)]²=2.9 over that which can be achieved with the standard design.

We have developed a statistical model for the flashover of a 45° vacuum-insulator interface (such as would be found in an accelerator) subject to a pulsed electric field. The model assumes that the initiation of a flashover plasma is a stochastic process, that the characteristic statistical component of the flashover delay time is much greater than the plasma formative time, and that the average rate at which flashovers occur is a power-law function of the instantaneous value of the electric field. Under these conditions, we find that the flashover probability is given by 1-exp(-E_p^βt_effC/k^β), where E_p is the peak value in time of the spatially averaged electric field E(t), t_eff≡∫[E(t)/E_p]^βdt is the effective pulse width, C is the insulator circumference, k∝exp(λ/d), and β and λ are constants. We define E(t) as V(t)/d, where V(t) is the voltage across the insulator and d is the insulator thickness. Since the model assumes that flashovers occur at random azimuthal locations along the insulator, it does not apply to systems that have a significant defect, i.e., a location contaminated with debris or compromised by an imperfection at which flashovers repeatedly take place, and which prevents a random spatial distribution. The model is consistent with flashover measurements to within 7% for pulse widths between 0.5 ns and 10   μs, and to within a factor of 2 between 0.5 ns and 90 s (a span of over 11 orders of magnitude). For these measurements, E_p ranges from 64 to 651  kV/cm, d from 0.50 to 4.32 cm, and C from 4.96 to 95.74 cm. The model is significantly more accurate, and is valid over a wider range of parameters, than the J. C. Martin flashover relation that has been in use since 1971 [J. C. Martin on Pulsed Power, edited by T. H. Martin, A. H. Guenther, and M. Kristiansen (Plenum, New York, 1996)]. We have generalized the statistical model to estimate the total-flashover probability of an insulator stack (i.e., an assembly of insulator-electrode systems connected in series). The expression obtained is consistent with the measured flashover performance of a stack of five 5.72-cm-thick, 1003-cm-circumference insulators operated at 100 and 158  kV/cm. The expression predicts that the total-flashover probability is a strong function of the ratio E_p/k, and that under certain conditions, the performance improves as the capacitance between the stack grading rings is increased. In addition, the expression suggests that given a fixed stack height, there exists an optimum number of insulator rings that maximizes the voltage at which the stack can be operated. The results presented can be applied to any system (or any set of systems connected in series) subject to random failures, when the characteristic statistical delay time of a failure is much greater than its formative time.