Experimental Study of Electrical Explosion of Bare and Coated Cu Wire in Water

Experimental investigations concerning electrical explosion of bare Cu wire and polyester (PET) coated Cu wire in water are presented in this paper. Besides, for deeper analysis, the obtained results are also compared with the behaviors of these two kinds of wires exploded in air. A platform has been established, which includes a microsecond timescale pulsed current source, a specially designed load, a diagnostic system, and a chamber with a diameter of 1000 mm. Load voltage, circuit current, shock wave pressure, and time-integrated spectra were recorded and analyzed. The experimental results revealed that the PET layer could slightly cause a time delay of about 0.2μs for the burst time. Meanwhile, the deposition energy of coated wires was larger than those of bare ones both in water and air. In contrast, light emission patterns were obviously different from these two kinds of wires. The insulation layer could absorb the light emitted from the discharge channel. As for shock waves, nevertheless, there was no obvious influence of the PET layer. This study may be helpful for the research of wire exploding process and related applications.