Experiments on cumulative jets current destruction

In the experiments, performed earlier by the authors, on metal cumulative jets destruction with the current of capacitor banks, almost complete destruction of the whole jet was achieved. In this case cumulative charge was located at a distance from current electrodes, approximately equal to the diameter of a cumulative funnel. A physical picture of the jet destruction in high-current regime lies in the initial development of instabilities in MHD jet in the form of necks and further electrical explosion of these necks. Similar experiments at increased distances between the cumulative charge and electrodes are described in the present paper. It is shown that the results of cumulative jet destruction could become worse, since a change of the initial state of the jet changes the physical picture of its current destruction process.

There are many papers devoted to investigation of physics of pulsed electrical current effect on metal cumulative jets (CJ). However, mechanism of CJ current destruction are not studied enough. Reasons of this lie in rather complicated physics and more expensive experiments in comparison with similar experiments with exploding wires.