Laser produced copper plasmas of different spot sizes in air were investigated using fast photography and optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The laser energy was 33 mJ. There were dramatic changes in the plasma plume expansion into the ambient air when spot sizes changed from ∼0.1 mm to ∼0.6 mm. A stream-like structure and a hemispherical structure were, respectively, observed. It appeared that the same spot size resulted in similar expansion dynamics no matter whether the target was located in the front of or behind the focal point, although laser-induced air breakdown sometimes occurred in the latter case. Plasma plume front positions agree well with the classic blast wave model for the large spot-size cases, while an unexpected stagnation of ∼80 ns occurred after the laser pulse ends for the small spot size cases. This stagnation can be understood in terms of the evolution of enhanced plasma shielding effects near the plasma front. Axial distributions of plasma components by OES revealed a good confinement effect. Electron number densities were estimated and interpreted using the recorded Intensified Charge Coupled Device (ICCD) images.
Ultraviolet (UV) illumination can effectively shorten the statistical lag and jitter in gas breakdown processes. The spark gap discharge can produce abundant spectrum including UV waveband. In this paper, a simple but reliable spark gap operating with N 2 at atmospheric pressure is used to test optical radiation characteristics, such as spectrum intensity, rise time, fall time, and duration of optical pulse, which are adjusted by changing the circuit or configuration parameters. Three UV-illuminated switches with different UV spark gap configurations have been tested. The experimental results approve our assumption. With a uniform electric field UV spark gap, the breakdown voltage standard deviation percentage of the switch is 0.74%.Index Terms-Breakdown characteristics, jitter, optical pulse parameter, pulsed power technology, pulsed switch, ultraviolet (UV) illumination.
In order to ensure the safety and economy of nuclear industry production, the analysis of nuclear materials and other materials used in nuclear industry environments are usually required before and during their installation and utilization, and after service. The advantages of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), such as sample preparation not being required and in situ remote analysis, make it an efficient method for the analysis of hazardous samples and samples in remotely accessible or hazardous environments. The nuclear industry has become one of the fast-growing fields of LIBS application. In this review, the feasibility of LIBS in the nuclear industry is summarized from the aspects of the physical fundamentals of plasma, instrumentation, spectral analysis, and application progress. The radiation characteristics of LIBS and spectral lines of interest are discussed, along with the main influencing factors and spectral enhancement methods. LIBS instruments and spectral analysis methods used for identification are then presented, and qualitative and quantitative analysis. The various applications of LIBS in the nuclear industry and in fusion facilities are described, including the analysis of nuclear materials, isotopes, and steels and alloys. Finally, the challenges currently being encountered by LIBS applications and its potential development direction are considered.
Possibility of preconditioning of wires in wire array Z-pinch loads by an auxiliary low-level current pulse was investigated in experiments with two aluminum or two polyimide-coated tungsten wires. It was found that the application of a 1 kA, 10 ns current pulse could convert all the length of the Al wires (1 cm long, 15 μm diameter) and ∼70% of length of the W wires (1 cm long, 15 μm diameter, 2 μm polyimide coating) into a gaseous state via ohmic heating. The expansion and merging of the wires, positioned at separations of 1–3 mm, were investigated with two-wavelength (532 nm and 1064 nm) laser interferometry. The gasified wire expanded freely in a vacuum and its density distribution at different times could be well described using an analytic model for the expansion of the gas into vacuum. Under an energy deposition around its atomization enthalpy of the wire material, the aluminum vapor column had an expansion velocity of 5–7 km/s, larger than the value of ∼4 km/s from tungsten wires. The dynamic atomic polarizabilities of tungsten for 532 nm and 1064 nm were also estimated.
A model is proposed to simulate the generation and propagation of the shock wave (SW) produced by underwater electrical wire explosion in microsecond timescale, with the assumption that the exploding wire instantly turns into uniform discharge plasma channel (DPC) after the onset of explosion. To describe the interaction between the DPC and the surrounding water medium, the initial temperature of DPC is obtained by fitting calculated pressures with experimental data, and the injected energy of DPC is provided by the measured discharge current after wire explosion. To attenuate the high frequency oscillations generated by the discretization, the method with the double artificial viscosity parameters is proposed to calculate the SW propagation characteristics, and the input parameter is the above-calculated DPC boundary trajectory. Based on the proposed model, the DPC and SW properties of an underwater copper wire explosion are analyzed. The results show that the estimated initial temperature of DPC is about 15 000 K, the attenuation of peak pressure can be characterized by a law of the radial propagation distance r to the power of −0.74, and the efficiency transferred from stored electrical energy to the exploding wire and the generated water flow are ∼71.5% and ∼10%, respectively.
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