2017 IEEE Pulsed Power Conference

Performance characteristics of spark gaps with hydrogen-nitrogen & hydrogen-argon gas mixtures

21 Jun 2017, 15:15

15m

Preston (Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel)

Oral High Power Microwaves, RF Sources and Antennas Oral session 17 - High Voltage Switching technology - Session Chair : Richard Ness

Speaker

Dr John Dolan (MBDA)

Description

This paper describes an investigation into the performance of sparkgaps with hydrogen-nitrogen, argon-hydrogen mixtures and a hydrogen only gas fill. The spark gap was operated in both self-breaking and triggered modes of operation to quantify the voltage hold-off and trigger voltage requirements as a function of gas mixture and gas recovery time. An un-triggered spark gap was operated and the self-break voltage measured over a range of pressures and pulse repetition rates from 1Hz to 1,000Hz for each of the different gases. For operation in a triggered mode, the required trigger voltage was measured for different pressures across a range of pulse repetition rates for the different gas mixtures.
This work was sponsored by MOD under contract number DSTL/AGR/00282/01.