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Pulsed Electromagnetic Acceleration of Plasma: A ReviewMuch have been learned in the acceleration mechanisms involved in accelerating a plasma electromagnetically in the laboratory over the last 40 years since the early review by Winston Bostik of 1963, but the accumulated understanding is very much scattered throughout the literature. This literature extends back at least to the early sixties and includes Rosenbluth's snowplow model, discussions by Ralph Lovberg, Colgate's boundary-layer model of a current sheet, many papers from the activity at Columbia by Robert Gross and his colleagues, and the relevant, 1-D unsteady descriptions developed from the U. of Maryland theta-pinch studies. Recent progress on the understanding of the pulsed penetration of magnetic fields into collisionless or nearly collisionless plasmas are also be reviewed. Somewhat more recently, we have the two-dimensional, unsteady results in the collisional regime associated with so-called wall-instability in large radius pinch discharges and also in coaxial plasma guns (e.g., Plasma Flow Switch). Among other things, for example, we have the phenomenon of a high- density plasma discharge propagating in a cooaxial gun as an apparently straight sheet (vs paraboloid) because mass re-distribution (on a microsecond timescale) compensates for the 1/r- squared variation of magnetic pressure. We will attempt to collate some of this vast material and bring some coherence tc the development of the subject.
Document ID
20030001013
Acquisition Source
Marshall Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Thio, Y. C. Francis
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Turchi, Peter J.
(Air Force Research Lab. Kirkland AFB, NM United States)
Markusic, Thomas E.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Cassibry, Jason T.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Sommer, James
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Rodgers, Stephen L.
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2002
Subject Category
Plasma Physics
Meeting Information
Meeting: American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics Annual Meeting
Location: Orlando, FL
Country: United States
Start Date: November 11, 2002
End Date: November 15, 2002
Sponsors: American Physical Society
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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