Abstract:
The arc phase of an electrical discharge in salt water is investigated using a 1-D nonlinear fluid model in cylindrical (r) coordinates. For most electrode geometries, the arc phase is more accurately modeled using a cylindrical geometry compared to the usual and simpler to implement spherical model. This is due to the fact that until the bubble radius is comparable to the distance between electrodes, the preferred geometry is cylindrical. Both the bubbles external (water) and internal (dissociated water and plasma) are discretized and modeled with nonlinear fluid equations. The model includes the energy flow from the capacitor, into the plasma arc through its resistivity, and then finally into the hydroacoustic pulse. Simulation results will be compared to experiments. Also the efficiency of various electrode configurations will be investigated. [Work supported by the Office of Naval Research.]