Experiments with small helical flux compression generators

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) uses small high explosives driven flux compression generators as power sources for exploding bridgewire loads. To better characterize these generators, a series of experiments using constant impedance loads was performed. These experiments included generators driving purely resistive, purely inductive and short circuited loads. Voltage, current and di/dt waveforms were measured and flash radiographs were taken. 5 refs., 8 figs., 1 tab.