Loughborough 2-D simulation of MURI flux-compression generators

A number of single-pitch minihelical flux-compression generators have been designed, manufactured and tested by Texas Tech University and the University of Missouri-Rolla, as part of a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI). Several other Institutions have collaborated in the program, by providing theoretical predictions of the output performance of a generator without having access to the experimental data or making any consequent parameter changes in their numerical codes. As part of this activity, the Plasma and Pulsed Power Group at Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK., has used its extensively documented and well-proven two-dimensional (2-D) filamentary modeling approach in conducting detailed theoretical considerations of the behavior of one of the generators. A number of fundamental features of the simulation are described in the paper, such as the inclusion of phase transition in the conductors and the effect of the very high electric field intensity in the contact point region. The ability of the code to provide accurate predictions of the actual generator performance for very-high-input currents is provided by the good agreement achieved with experimental results presented by TTU.