Abstract
Pulsed power generators with an inductive energy storage system can be designed compactly and economically, Opening switches are indispensable to pulsed power generators using the inductive storage system. Fuses of metal foil or thin wires placed in tamper have been used as opening switches because of their simplicity and reasonable high performance.
Here, resistance variation of thin copper wires in water as an opening switch was studied to obtain the basic data for design of an inductive energy storage pulsed power generator. The dimensions of a wire influence the relation between the resistivity and the energy deposited in the wire of unit mass. Nevertheless, it is desirable that its relation can be represented regardless the wire dimensions. The dependence of the changing rate of wire resistivity on the resistivity was obtained using the energy balance equation about exploding wires, as a result, phases of wire exploding were clearly confirmed and the influence of the dimensions was removed from the relation between the resistivity and the deposited energy in an early phase of the wire vaporization.
