Underwater electrical wire explosion and its applications

Alex Fedotov Gefen

Results of an investigation of underwater electrical wire explosions using high-power microsecond and nanosecond generators will be reported. Different diagnostics, including electrical, optical, and spectroscopic, together with hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic simulations, were used to characterize parameters of the discharge channel and generated strong shock waves.

The estimated energy deposition into Cu and Al wire material of up to 200 eV/atom was achieved. Analysis of the generated shock waves shows that ∼15% of the deposited energy is transferred into the mechanical energy of the water flow.

Also, it was shown that converging shock waves formed by underwater explosion of cylindrical wire arrays can be used to achieve extremely high pressure at the axis of implosion. A pressure > 1 Mbar at a distance of 5 mm from the axis of the implosion at a stored energy of ∼4 kJ was achieved.