Initiation of Electrical Breakdown of Soil by Water Vaporization

The predictions of a simple model of water vaporization in soil are determined and compared with previously published data for the time for the initiation of streamers which leads to soil breakdown under pulsed high-voltage excitation. This model is capable of predicting the relatively long initiation times which have been observed under certain experimental conditions and also provides an explanation for the strong, experimentally determined, dependence of the initiation time on electric field.