Measurements and simulations of the ablation stage of wire arrays with different initial wire sizes

Comparisons of 20mm diameter, 300-wire tungsten arrays with different initial wire sizes were made on the 20MA Sandia Z facility. Radiographic measurements of each wire array, taken at the same point in the current during the wire ablation stage, show systematic differences. A detailed comparison of the radiography and self-emission data with simulations and analytic models suggests that a variation in the mass ablation rate with wire size may be responsible.