Underwater electrical explosion of a Cu wire

Abstract

Results and analysis of a microsecond time scale underwater electrical wire explosion are presented. Experiments were carried out with a Cu wire exploded by a current pulse ⩽100kA with microsecond time duration. The analysis is based on shadow and spectrally resolved streak photography which were used to monitor the evolution of the discharge channel and the shock wave. The obtained data were used for hydrodynamic calculation of the generated water flow parameters, such as pressure and flow velocity distribution between the discharge channel and the shock wave. In particular, the pressure at the discharge channel boundary and the energy transferred to the water were estimated. The results of the calculation have been verified by comparing the measured and calculated trajectories of the shock wave. Based on the results of the calculation the energy transferred to the water was estimated. In addition, the analysis shows that the energy initially deposited in the discharge channel continues to produce mechanical work after the deposition of the electrical energy has ended.

Spectroscopy of a plasma formed in the vicinity of implosion of the shock wave generated by underwater electrical explosion of spherical wire array

“…The main advantages of this approach are related to the large electric filed breakdown value (>300 kV/cm) of water and its low compressibility (adiabatic index c ¼ 7.15), which allows an extremely high energy density deposition into the exploding wire to be achieved. Indeed, recent experimental, analytical and numerical studies [11][12][13][14][15] of underwater electrical wire explosion showed that, using pulsed power generators with a stored energy of only a few kJ, an extreme state of matter, i.e., up to 500 eV/atom and pressure of 5 Â 10 9 Pa can be obtained.…”

Temporal shock wave analysis produced by copper exploding wires in air at atmospheric pressure

“…[1][2][3][4][5] The edition work of Chace and Moore 6 and the work of Lebedev 7 constitute very good and extensive reviews of EW. From the beginning, electrical signals, [8][9][10] shock wave imaging, 11,12 and radiation measurement 13 were the primary tools to understand the phenomena. Because the shock wave generated has rich information about the shock wave generator system, different wire materials, dimensions, and surrounding media were studied in the past.…”

Addressing water vaporization in the vicinity of an exploding wire

“…The minimum wire heating rate considered in calculations was similar to that obtained in the electrical wire explosion experiments in Refs. [12][13][14] .…”

“…8 In the case of underwater electrical wire explosion in the microsecond and nanosecond time scales, it was shown that high pressures generated in the surrounding water during the discharge might suppress the generation of the plasma shell. [12][13][14] In these papers, pressure generated by the expanding material of the exploded wire was reported. The estimated velocity of the wire expansion was ϳ10 4 cm/ s and the pressure generated by such a piston was of the order of a few 10 9 Pa. Obviously, at these pressures the problem of water vaporization is automatically abolished since the critical pressure of water is ϳ2.5 ϫ 10 7 Pa.…”