Rectangular Wires in Pulse-Heating Experiments

The electric and temperature fields in a pulse-heated wire with a quadratic cross section are calculated analytically. The quick increase of the current through the wire during the pulse-heating process results in a nonuniform electric field (skin effect), and thus also a nonuniform temperature field over the wire cross section. By means of a typical pulse-heating experiment performed on a quadratic niobium wire, the magnitudes of the deviations of these fields from their mean values are graphically displayed. Compared with the strength of the mean fields, these deviations are significant only in the first few μs of the heating process.