Current and Internal Phase Distribution in an Exploding Wire until Ionization: Modeling and Experiments

An exploding wire discharge begins with a large electrical current that forces the wire metal to melt, vaporize, and later ionize to produce the plasma. Using a combination of modeling and experimental data, in this work it is shown that phase changes at these early stages of the exploding wire process are strongly dependent on metal properties, affecting wire energy dynamics. Simultaneously, current and voltage signals can be very similar regardless of internal phase distribution, which depends strongly on the metal of the wire.