Calculation of electric spark discharge energy and its energy loss

In order to accurately calculate the energy of electric spark discharge under different conditions, we quantified and analyzed the energy loss of spark discharge system. On the basis of comparing three common methods of calculating electrode discharge energy, we systematically investigated the loss rate and change regulations of the capacitance residual energy and loss energy in circuit in different kinds of discharge processes. The results showed that, with the increase of stored energy (from 2 mJ to 2 J), the loss rate of energy caused by capacitance residual energy increased from 1% to 20%, meanwhile the proportion of circuit loss energy in total energy and the loss rate of energy in the whole system reduced from 70% to 5% and from 70% to 20%, respectively. Therefore, directly calculating electric spark discharge energy using capacitance stored energy will end up with errors; instead, integral method should be taken into the calculation. However, when the capacitance stored energy is large, it can be used to calculate the discharge energy directly since the error will be small.