Effects of inductance on the pressure produced from exploding aluminum metallized capacitor grade polypropylene films

Experiments from the electrical explosion of capacitor grade aluminum metalized polypropylene film were designed and executed to investigate the relationship between inductance in the discharge circuit path and the pressures produced by the explosion of the film. Previous work has shown that the specific action integral of an exploding aluminum metallized film is not constant, but is affected by the overall inductance of the discharge circuit and geometry, length, and width of the exploding film. A piezoelectric pressure transducer has been utilized to report these pressures for several different inductance values. An inverse relationship between the inductance and the resultant pressures was established. The effect of the inductance caused later burst times, which translated into lower overall pressures. A second pressure peak was noted and theorized to potentially be caused by the dynamic effects of the current density during the arc discharge plasma that forms during the current restrike period. The relationship between the current and the magnetic field were validated by the results which showed the decreased current density at higher inductances, which caused lower second peak pressures.