Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Coincidence of the Measured Voltage Peak and the Measured Current Inflection Point in Exploding Metals

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1761801· OSTI ID:1761801
 [1];  [1]
  1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Exploding Bridgewire (EBW) Detonators and Exploding Foil Initiators (EFI's, e.g. Slappers) have unique current and voltage characteristics marked by a large voltage spike and an inflection point in the current. Mathematically, it is shown that the voltage peak and the current inflection point must align in time. Models concur with the math and show voltage peaks occurring at the same point in time as the inflection point. Circuit analysis is performed to demonstrate why the voltage peak and current inflection point will almost never align in time for an experiment. To correctly analyze exploding metal behavior, the current inflection point and voltage peak must be manually aligned in time. These conclusions apply to single detonators where current and voltage is measured on those detonators. In multi-detonator systems, the conclusions herein apply only for cases where current and voltage are obtained for each detonator individually. The conclusions will begin to break down as measurements become combined.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
1761801
Report Number(s):
SAND--2017-5535; 671184
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Computer modeling of electrical performance of detonators
Conference · Mon May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1995 · OSTI ID:82444

Laser detonator development for test-firing applications
Conference · Wed Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2003 · OSTI ID:977634

Monolithic exploding foil initiator
Patent · Tue Oct 23 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · OSTI ID:1079410