Effect of Medium on Deposited Energy in Electrical Wire Explosion

Electrical explosions of copper wires in air and water driven by pulsed voltage of a few microseconds were investigated.A self-integrated Rogowski coil and a voltage divider were used for measurements of the current and voltage at the wire load,respectively.The deposited energy during melting,liquid state and vaporization was calculated by a mathematical method.The effects of air and water on deposited energy during three processes mentioned above were analyzed by experiments and calculation.Results show the medium density is an important factor of medium affecting electrical copper wire explosions,there is an obvious difference between electrical copper wire explosion in air and water,and the deposited energy in exploding copper wire in water is much more than that in air,especially after inception of vaporization.