Observation of Early Stage of Underwater Electrical Wire Explosion by Shadowgraph

Early stage of underwater electrical wire explosion was observed by shadowgraph. By decreasing initial energy, the early stage of wire explosion was slowed down and possible to capture shadow photos during phase transitions. The vaporization process of wire is usually axially non-uniform due to random local micro explosions along the wire. The degree of non-uniform will be significantly decreased when increasing the initial energy. During explosion of the wire, more than one shock waves were generated not only from phase transition, but also from different pulses of deposition power. A modified piston model was introduced to explain the phenomenon.