Application of plasma focus installations for a study of the influence of deuterium cumulative flows on materials

In this work, as an example of an application of the plasma focus (PF) device, we study the influence on alloys of vanadium of a cumulative flow producing in the PF device. The experiment was done in a 4-kJ PF device with various gas fillings and various anode shapes. It was found that the velocity of the axial cumulative flow depends on the type of gas and is about 5.107 cm/s for deuterium and 2.107 cm/s for argon fillings of plasma focus chamber; the shape of the flow is changed from a broad conical fly for deuterium to a quasi-one-directional stream for argon. The dynamics and structure of such flows are investigated by means of laser diagnostics and an image converter camera. The experiments show that cumulative flows produce various defects in tested samples. The appearance of a large number of cracks on the surface of vanadium under the impulse influence of deuterium plasma shows that pure vanadium cannot be used for the construction of thermonuclear fusion reactors