Pulsed power is a short pulse, high energy generated by an explosive charge or high current which can be utilized for various applications. Explosive is a kind of pulsed power source, but the legal restrictions imposed on the usage of explosives are very severe and also it is necessary to strive for the handling, maintenance and safety of explosives. Rather than using explosive, electric pulsed power can be used to generate shock waves, as the technique is simple and safe. The aim of this study is to effectively use the underwater shock wave generated by the electric pulsed power for the destruction of structure and rocks. In this study, the underwater shock wave generated by gap discharge (GD method) or metal wire explosion (WE method) using the electric pulsed power was evaluated by optical observation using a high-speed camera, pressure measurement, and deformation of aluminum pipe.
The energy of an underwater shock wave can be improved by increasing the charge energy of a capacitor. The underwater shock wave generated by GD method showed the existence of many shock waves. The duration of the pressure pulse is long in this phenomenon, but a peak pressure of underwater shock wave by the WE method is higher than the GD method. In the deformation experiments of aluminum pipe, the bulging produced by the WE method has about 2 times that of the GD method.
