Optical registration of surface plasma of cylindrical conductors at strong magnetic fields
The paper presents the results of experiments on the explosion of aluminum and titanium conductors carried out on the MIG generator (current amplitude of 2 MA, current rise time of 100 ns) in magnetic fields up to 3MG. The conductors consisted of two parts: a rod with a diameter of 3 mm and a tube with the same external diameter and the wall thickness of 250 microns. Images of the surface plasma of a conductor were recorded using an HSFC-Pro optical camera. It is shown that instabilities on the surface of a metal with high conductivity (aluminum) are formed later than on the surface of a metal with low conductivity (titanium). On the surface of the tube, the instabilities appear earlier than on the surface of the rod, and remain more pronounced for both conductor materials during the whole process. The growth rates of large-scale instabilities have been determined, and the mechanism of their formation has been analyzed.