Electrical conductivities of aluminum, copper, and tungsten observed by an underwater explosion

Conductivities of dense aluminum, copper, and tungsten are evaluated using exploding wire discharges in water. Evolutions of the radius and the electrical resistance of exploding wire are measured together with direct pyrometric estimation of the temperature. The conductivities are evaluated based on the measurements and their density dependence is compared with theoretical predictions at a fixed temperature. The results indicate that regardless of materials, the conductivity has a minimum around 3% of solid density at temperature of 5000 K. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3475430]