The specific current action integral for conductors exploded by high-frequency currents

Abstract

The explosive emission processes that occur at electrode surface microprotrusions may have harmful effects in a variety of electrodynamic and acceleration systems exposed to high-power radio frequency electromagnetic waves. This paper presents the results of a radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the explosion of copper conductors that occur under conditions inherent in the explosion of electrode microprotrusions, i.e., at current densities of the order of 109 A/cm2. Explosions occurring under quasi-stationary and radio frequency conditions (hereinafter referred to as quasi-stationary and radio frequency explosions, respectively) were considered. It was shown that in all the considered cases, the explosion occurred at high temperatures, so that the energy deposited in the conductor by the time of explosion exceeded the sublimation energy of the conductor material. It turned out, however, that the energy deposited in the conductor under radio frequency conditions, regardless of the frequency of current oscillations, was more than two times less than that deposited under quasi-stationary conditions. The explosion time was also virtually independent of the frequency, and it was approximately three times longer than that calculated for quasi-stationary conditions. For a radio frequency explosion, the specific current action integral was somewhat less (by about 25%) than that for a quasi-stationary explosion, and its value was actually independent of frequency. At the same time, in the radio frequency regime, the radiation power coming out of the conductor substance drops strongly, and it is almost two orders of magnitude smaller compared to the radiation power in the quasistationary regime.