Underwater electrical discharge characteristics at high values of initial pressure and temperature

Summary form only given. At present, considerable attention is paid to investigation of the influence of liquid environment conditions on electrical discharge processes. This interest can be explained by the necessity of pulsed power facilities operation under conditions which are substantially far from normal. This paper presents the results of experimental and theoretical study of the influence of initial conditions on the underwater discharge development at high pressure and temperature. An experimental study of the electrical discharge in water with specific conductivity of 6.4/spl times/10/sup -2/ Sm/spl middot/m/sup -1/ was carried out at the hydrostatic pressure values ranged from 0.1 MPa to 50 MPa. Measurements of the discharge current, gap voltage as well photographing of the plasma channel development by high speed camera with framing speed of 1 million frames per second were carried out during the experiment. Up to 15 shots were done for every set of parameters with the consequent statistical treatment of the obtained data.