EXPERIMENTS AND CALCULATIONS IN AN INVERSE PINCH

Experiments on the production of collisional shocks in an inverse pinch magnetohydrodynamic shock producing device are described. These experiments are related to the numerical techniques in an accompanying paper in order to explain the observed phenomena. The position of a shock in the rear of a current sheet driven through argon is accounted for by the calculation of relevant plasma parameters and their comparison to previous similarity solutions. The forward position of a shock in helium and hydrogen is similarily explained. The effect of shock produced dissociation in hydrogen is observed by its effect on the gas conductivity and current sheet diffusion. The detailed influence of Mach number and magnetic Reynolds number on shock position is examined experimentally, and methods are proposed for successfully producing high-speed separated shocks.