3D MHD Simulations of Radial Wire Array Z-pinches

Recent experiments carried out on the MAGPIE (1 MA, 250 ns), OEDIPE (730 kA, 1.5 μs) and SPHINX (4 MA, 700 ns)[1] facilities have shown the relatively high level of scalability of the Radial Wire Array Z-pinches. These configurations where the wires stretch radially outwards from a central cathode offer numerous advantages over standard cylindrical arrays. In particular, imploding in a very stable and compact way, they seem suitable for coupling to small scale hohlraums. Making use of the 3D resistive magneto-hydrodynamic code GORGON[2] developed at Imperial College, the dynamic of the radial wire arrays is investigated. Influence of the cathode hotspots and wires angle on the x-ray emissions is also discussed. Comparison with experiments is offered to validate the numerical studies.