Pressure pulses generated by wire-guided discharges in water

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Chai, Yifan and Timoshkin, Igor and Given, Martin J. and MacGregor, Scott J. (2026) Pressure pulses generated by wire-guided discharges in water. IET High Voltage, 11 (3). pp. 869-878. ISSN 2397-7264 (https://doi.org/10.1049/hve2.70177)

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Abstract

The hydrodynamic characteristics of underwater wire-guided discharges and their relationships with the wire length and pulsed circuit parameters are not fully understood. In this paper wire-guided discharges using wires of length 3, 5 and 7 cm and diameter of 0.05 mm have been investigated. The energy available to the discharges was 162.3 J at a voltage of 35 kV. The magnitude of the pressure pulses produced has been characterised through the deformation of copper disks located between 4 and 9 cm from the initiating wire. In this region, the peak pressure was observed to decrease with distance faster than predicted by the ideal cases of spherical or cylindrical pressure waves. The peak pressure 4 cm away from the discharge was up to ∼45 MPa and was dependent on the wire length. The energy partition during the discharges has been analysed based on recorded current waveforms, calculated resistive voltage across wire across wire and constant plasma channel resistance.

ORCID iDs

Chai, Yifan ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9681-4620, Timoshkin, Igor ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0380-9003, Given, Martin J. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6354-2486 and MacGregor, Scott J. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8810-1716;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)