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A powerful new accelerator, dubbed 'Thor' will smash materials at 1 million atmospheres, recreating the pressures found at the centre of the Earth.
The new Sandia National Laboratories accelerator will be smaller than the Sandia Z machine, the world's largest and most powerful pulsed-power accelerator— but it will be 40 times more efficient.
http://www.sandia.gov/z-machine/
SANDIA Z
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_Pulsed_Power_Facility
It is expected to be used for everything from weapons research to unlocking the potential of fusion energy, the process that powers the sun, which could be the ultimate "green" energy source.
The new accelerator will take up 2,000 square feet, making it much smaller than the 10,000 square foot Z machine.
Thor will have hundreds of small capacitors, which will allow researchers to slash the time necessary to determine the shapes of pulses
While the smaller size won't enable it to hit pressures reached by the Z machine, which can achieve 5 million atmospheres, Thor will live up to the title of its hammer-wielding namesake.
'Thor's magnetic field will reach about one million atmospheres, about the pressures at Earth's core,' said David Reisman, lead theoretical physicist of the project.
Accelerators like Thor and the Z machine are necessary to study the behaviours of materials under extreme conditions.
The Z accelerator has been used in Sandia’s Pulsed Power Technology research to measure material properties and test nuclear survivability, among other advanced physics applications.
Thor's design will allow small switches on shoebox sized capacitors to discharge currents at 100-nanosecond pulses, and give researchers more control.
And, the increased efficiency will cut back on energy losses.
'Individual cables from pairs of capacitors separate our signals.
'By combining these signals in any manner we choose, we can tailor very precise pulses of electrical current,' Reisman said.
By using uniquely tailored pulse shapes, the researchers can avoid shocking the subject materials into changing state.
'We want the material to stay in its solid state as we pass it through increasing pressures,' he said. 'If we shock the material, it becomes a hot liquid and doesn't give us information.'
The increased number of capacitors will also allow each one to be isolated for more precise observation
'In 30 seconds on a computer, we can determine the shape of the pulse that will produce a desired compression curve, whereas it takes days to determine how to create the idea pulse shape for a Z experiment,' Reisman said.
Thor uses shoebox sized units called 'bricks,' which each contain two capacitors and a switch.
Now, Sandia is building Thor brick by brick, and they expect the two intermediate stages, Thor 24 and Thor 48, named for their number of bricks, to be completed in 2016
'These are 'first-light' machines that will be used for initial experiments and validation,' Reisman said.
At its completion, Thor 144 will reach 1 million atmospheres of pressure.
The project descends from an earlier device, a linear transformer driver (LTD), developed by Sandia and the Institute of High-Current Electronics in Tomsk, Russia.
According to Sandia manager Bill Stygar, more powerful LTD versions of the Z machine could give rise to thermonuclear ignition and high-yield fusion.
As development continues, Reisman says the smaller sized machine could make this technology more accessible for other researchers.
'Part of the motivation for Thor was to develop affordable and compact machines that could be operated at universities.'
The new Sandia National Laboratories accelerator will be smaller than the Sandia Z machine, the world's largest and most powerful pulsed-power accelerator— but it will be 40 times more efficient.
http://www.sandia.gov/z-machine/
SANDIA Z
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_Pulsed_Power_Facility
It is expected to be used for everything from weapons research to unlocking the potential of fusion energy, the process that powers the sun, which could be the ultimate "green" energy source.
The new accelerator will take up 2,000 square feet, making it much smaller than the 10,000 square foot Z machine.
Thor will have hundreds of small capacitors, which will allow researchers to slash the time necessary to determine the shapes of pulses
While the smaller size won't enable it to hit pressures reached by the Z machine, which can achieve 5 million atmospheres, Thor will live up to the title of its hammer-wielding namesake.
'Thor's magnetic field will reach about one million atmospheres, about the pressures at Earth's core,' said David Reisman, lead theoretical physicist of the project.
Accelerators like Thor and the Z machine are necessary to study the behaviours of materials under extreme conditions.
The Z accelerator has been used in Sandia’s Pulsed Power Technology research to measure material properties and test nuclear survivability, among other advanced physics applications.
Thor's design will allow small switches on shoebox sized capacitors to discharge currents at 100-nanosecond pulses, and give researchers more control.
And, the increased efficiency will cut back on energy losses.
'Individual cables from pairs of capacitors separate our signals.
'By combining these signals in any manner we choose, we can tailor very precise pulses of electrical current,' Reisman said.
By using uniquely tailored pulse shapes, the researchers can avoid shocking the subject materials into changing state.
'We want the material to stay in its solid state as we pass it through increasing pressures,' he said. 'If we shock the material, it becomes a hot liquid and doesn't give us information.'
The increased number of capacitors will also allow each one to be isolated for more precise observation
'In 30 seconds on a computer, we can determine the shape of the pulse that will produce a desired compression curve, whereas it takes days to determine how to create the idea pulse shape for a Z experiment,' Reisman said.
Thor uses shoebox sized units called 'bricks,' which each contain two capacitors and a switch.
Now, Sandia is building Thor brick by brick, and they expect the two intermediate stages, Thor 24 and Thor 48, named for their number of bricks, to be completed in 2016
'These are 'first-light' machines that will be used for initial experiments and validation,' Reisman said.
At its completion, Thor 144 will reach 1 million atmospheres of pressure.
The project descends from an earlier device, a linear transformer driver (LTD), developed by Sandia and the Institute of High-Current Electronics in Tomsk, Russia.
According to Sandia manager Bill Stygar, more powerful LTD versions of the Z machine could give rise to thermonuclear ignition and high-yield fusion.
As development continues, Reisman says the smaller sized machine could make this technology more accessible for other researchers.
'Part of the motivation for Thor was to develop affordable and compact machines that could be operated at universities.'