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This paper presents the characteristics of underwater electrical wire explosion (UEWE) with three discharge types, namely, Type-A, Type-B, and Type-C. Experiments were carried out with copper and tungsten wires (4 cm long and 50-300üm in diameter) driven by a microsecond time-scale pulsed current source with 500 J stored energy. A time-integrated spectrometer and a photodiode were used to measure the optical emission of UEWE. A Polyvinylidene Fluoride probe was adopted to record the pressure waveforms. Experimental results indicate that from Type-A to Type-C, more energy deposits prior to the voltage peak and the first peak power increases drastically. This variation of energy deposition influences the optical emission and shock wave generation process. Specifically, the light intensity decreases by more than 90% and the peak of continuous spectra moves from ~400 nm to ~700 nm. In addition, the peak pressure of the first shock wave increases from ~2MPa to more than 7.5 MPa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an experimental study on exploding a copper wire in air, water, incombustible powders, and energetic materials is performed. We examined the effects of the surrounding media on the explosion process and its related phenomena. Experiments were first carried out with copper wire explosions driven by microsecond timescale pulsed currents in air, water and the half-half case. Then, the copper wires were exploded in air, water, SiO2 powders, quartz sand, NaCl powders, and energetic-material cylinders, respectively. Our experimental results indicated that the explosion process was significantly influenced by the surrounding media, resulting in noticeable differences in energy deposition, optical emission and shock waves. In particular, incombustible powders could throttle the current flow completely when a fine wire was adopted. We also found that an air or incombustible-powder layer could drastically attenuate the shock wave generated by a wire explosion. As for energetic-material loads, obvious discrepancies were found in voltage/current waveforms from vaporization when compared with a wire explosion in air/water, which meant the metal vapor/liquid drops play a significant role in the ignition process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A platform SWE-2 used for single wire explosion experiments has been designed, established, and commissioned. This paper describes the design and initial experiments of SWE-2. In summary, two pulsed current sources based on pulse capacitors and spark gaps are adopted to drive sub-microsecond and microsecond time scale wire explosions in a gaseous/liquid medium, respectively. In the initial experiments, a single copper wire was exploded in air, helium, and argon with a 0.1-0.3 MPa ambient pressure as well as tap water with a 283-323 K temperature, 184-11 000 μS/cm conductivity, or 0.1-0.9 MPa hydrostatic pressure. In addition, the diagnostic system is introduced in detail. Energy deposition, optical emission, and shock wave characteristics are briefly discussed based on experimental results. The platform was demonstrated to operate successfully with a single wire load. These results provide the potential for further applications of this platform, such as plasmamatter interactions, shock wave effects, and reservoir simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric pressure glow discharge (APGD) has been widely used in the industrial field. The industrial applications are based on achieving stable and diffusive APGD in a relatively large space. The existing sources only achieved stable and diffusive APGD between a short inter-electrode distance within 5 millimeters. In this paper, the effect of a transverse stationary magnetic field on the diffusion of filamentary APGD was studied in a pin-to-ring coaxial gap. The APGD was driven by a high-voltage resonant power supply, and the stationary magnetic field was supplied by a permanent magnet. The stable and diffusive APGD was achieved in the circular area, which diameter was 20 millimeters. The experimental results revealed that more collision ionization occurred and the plasma was distributed diffusively in the discharge gap by applying the external transverse magnetic field. Besides, it is likely to obtain more stable and diffusive APGD in the coaxial pin-to-ring discharge gap when adjusting the input voltage, transverse magnetic flux density and resonant frequency of the power supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When an object is placed on a water surface, the air-water interface deforms and a meniscus arises due to surface tension effects, which in turn produces a lift force or drag force on the partly submerged object. This study aims to investigate the underlyingmechanism of the vertical force acting on spindly cylinders in contact with a water surface. A simplified 2-D model is presented, and the profile of the curved air-water interface and the vertical force are computed using a numerical method. A parametric study is performed to determine the effects of the cylinder center distance, inclined angle, static contact angle, and radius on the vertical force. Several key conclusions are derived from the study: (1) Although the lift force increases with the cylinder center distance, cylinders with smaller center distances can penetrate deeper belowthewater surface before sinking, thereby obtaining a larger maximum lift force; (2) An increase in the inclined angle reduces the lift force, which can enable the lower cylinders fall more deeply before sinking; (3)While the effect of static contact angle is limited for angles greater than 90?, hydrophobicity allows cylinders to obtain a larger lift force and load capacity on water; (4) The lift force increases rapidly with cylinder radius, but an increase in radius also increases the overall size and weight of cylinders and decreases the proportion of the surface tension force. These findings may prove helpful in the design of supporting legs of biologically-inspired miniature aquatic devices, such as water strider robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]