2-D MHD Study of Instabilities During the Compression Phase of an Inverse Z-Pinch MTF System

Abstract

Two-dimensional MHD computations have been performed to study the growth of instabilities in an MTF system involving the cylindrical compression of a inverse Z-pinch target plasma by a metallic liner. The growth of modes in the plasma can be divided into two phases. During the first phase, the plasma continues to be Kadomtsev stable. The dominant mode in the liner instability is imposed upon the plasma in the form of a growing perturbation. This mode further transfers part of its energy to its harmonics. During the second phase, however, non-uniform implosion of the liner leads to axial variations in plasma quantities near the liner-plasma interface, such that certain regions of the plasma locally violate the Kadomtsev criteria. Further growth of the plasma modes is then due to plasma instability.