Optimization of shock intensities generated by high current exploding wires

Summary form only given. A 400 μF capacitor bank, charged as high as 3.5 kV (2.45 J) is used to drive an exploding wire in air with up to 10 s kA over a 100 s of microsecond timescale. Utilizing a short wire with 286 μm diameter enables generating an intense shockwave with overpressures on the order of 1 psi (6.9 kPa). Investigation of the energy dependence of the overpressure magnitude was completed by both varying the initial capacitor voltage, as well as parasitically introducing additional resistive dampening into the circuit. Additionally, variation in both capacitance and inductance were made in order to observe the effect of varying the driving source timescale on generated overpressure. Optimization of the exploding wire load involved exploring various materials, radii, length, as well as the number of exploding wires. Preliminary theoretical predictions are made using the Sandia National Laboratories ALEGRA-MHD software. Theoretical and experimental results are benchmarked against one another to assess the accuracy of the theoretical predictions.