Influence of the Distributed Phase of Gas Bubbles on a Pulsed Electrical Discharge in Water

The development of a pulsed electrical discharge in water with vapor–air microbubbles, the volume distribution of which in water is close to uniform, has been studied experimentally. The presence of volumetric microbubbles with an average diameter of ~50 μm and a bulk gas content of no more than 1% does not change the thermal mechanism of the development of the discharge in water with a conductivity of ~300 μS/cm at overvoltages of 1–1.5, the minimum breakdown voltage being ~9 kV. Under these conditions, the determining role is played by the surface bubbles, which change the observed mechanism of the discharge development. The discharge is initiated in the surface bubbles simultaneously on both electrodes. The growth of the cathode channel at a velocity of ~60 m/s leads to the closure of the 1-cm-long gap during a time of ~160 μs.