Explosive magnetohydrodynamic program. Technical report, 2 January--1 October 1972

An analytic study is presented with the addition of design and experimental data required to augment the study. The analysis presented is conclusive in its finding that the X-MHD is a highly versatile prime power source which can be operated without benefit of vacuum equipment in residual ambient pressure gases of various composition and at high repetition rate with various loads. At high repetition rate, the spent explosion products of a previous round are an ideal residual or purge gas. Energy conversion efficiency in excess of 10% should be attainable with optimized residual gases at ambient pressure, and from 5 to 10% with spent explosion product residual gases at field levels currently achievable with superconducting magnets. (auth)