Numerical simulation of an electrical explosion of thin aluminum wires

Numerical simulation of an electrical explosion of a thin aluminum wire is carried out in the investigation of the dynamics of forming the core-corona structure and redistribution of current over a discharge channel. The parameters of the aluminum wire (l = 12 mm in length and d = 25 μm in diameter) and of the current pulse (I = 10 kA is the peak value and dI/dt ∼ 50 A/ns is the current rise rate) correspond to the data of the experiment, conducted in Lebedev Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (LPI RAS). Several series of the calculations in the framework of radiative magnetic hydrodynamics (RMHD), both with regard to radiation and not in regard to it, as well as the calculations from the “cold start,” with regard to the phase transitions and the possibility of implementation of metastable states, are carried out. The obtained results are compared with the experimental data.