Investigation of electrical conductivity and equations of state of non-ideal plasma through underwater electrical wire explosion

Abstract

The results of experiments and magnetohydrodynamic simulations of nanosecond time scale underwater electrical explosions of Al, Cu, and W wires are presented. Experiments were performed using a nanosecond pulsed generator with a ∼30 kA amplitude and ∼60 ns rise time current pulse. The electrical conductivity of the tested materials in the density and temperature ranges of 0.1–20 g/cm3 and 0.03–8 eV, respectively, is presented. It is shown that for the physical conditions obtained in these experiments, the equation of state data used in the SESAME tables must be modified in order to reproduce the experimental results. Also, it was shown that the electrical conductivity of the metals does not consistently fit over the entire range of experimental conditions with either of the transport models presented.