Influence of the current growth rate on the polarity effect in a wire array in the Angara-5-1 facility

It is shown that, at a sufficiently high current growth rate, the initial stage of implosion of a wire array is significantly affected by the radial electric fields. Due to the specific electrode configuration of wire arrays, the magnitude of the oppositely directed radial electric fields in different wire segments can reach 5 MV/cm. It is found that the process of plasma formation proceeds in different ways in segments with oppositely directed initial radial electric fields. The influence of this effect (the so-called “polarity effect”) on the implosion of cylindrical tungsten wire arrays in the Angara-5-1 facility becomes significant when the load voltage grows at a sufficiently high rate.