Analysis of influence of electrical conductivity on shock wave characteristics of spherical electrode

The impulse sound source generated by the "hydro-electric effect" has great development potential in the fields of rock breaking, geosteering, location determination, hydro-electric forming, water treatment and oil and gas stimulation. At present, the research of impulse sound source is mainly based on the principle and application of the breakdown between electrodes when the electrodes are discharged underwater. In this paper, a numerical model of sphere-sphere electrode was established by COMSOL to study the effect of electrical conductivity on the impulsive wave property of sound source. The results show that with the increase of conductivity, the pre-breakdown delay decreases, the first peak of discharge current and the peak of shock wave intensity increase, the channel deposition energy decreases, the leakage energy and shock wave energy both increase, and the conversion efficiency of channel deposition energy to shock wave energy increases.