Zero-dimensional simulation of discharge channel properties during underwater electrical wire explosion

To understand the physical mechanism of underwater electrical wire explosion (UEWE), we established a simple and practical numerical simulation method to describe the hydrodynamics properties of discharge plasma channel (DPC) in UEWE. The model is based on the ideal hydrodynamics equation set, and uses the arbitrary discontinuity propagation theory to describe the interaction between DPC and surrounding water. In the simulations, electrical conductivity data obtained from America Sandia National Laboratories and ideal equation of state (EOS) were adopted, and the Tucker resistivity-specific action model and Sariksov 0-D thermodynamical (ThD) model were introduced to calculate the initial state of DPC. Moreover, some reported experimental data were used as the input in the simulation, and the results calculated using the proposed model were in good accordance with the existed experimental data and MHD simulation results. In addition, according to our simulation, the pressure, temperature, and expansion velocity of DPC reach up to 6 GPa, 3 eV, and 1 100 m/s, respectively.