Abstract

Aluminum surface analysis after exposed to dense electrothermal launcher plasma

Author(s): F.Diab, G.M.El-Aragi, G.M.El-Kashef, A.H.Saudy

An electrothermal Plasma Gun (ETG) device is composed of a capillary discharge tube made of Teflon operated with simple RLC circuit. The maximum gun power ranged between (11.3 – 106 MW) and varies linearly with discharge voltage. The device is composed of 4 capacitors (70 F, 10 kV, 1.3 H) which are connected in parallel to a plasma source by means of one high power plane transmission line by means of a switch triggered by negative pulse 360/385V. The experimental of the vapor shield concept in an electrothermal launcher is reported. When the amount of vapor is enough produced under high heat flux, the vapor shield mechanism will help limit the surface erosion in electromechanical devices. From the experiments results we found that the mass loss from the capillary wall and the electrodes increase with increasing the input energy. The morphology of the particulate and surface structure which generate by the plasma ablation is investigated. Moreover, the morphology studies are described according to the visual appearance of micrograph which taken by the scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results of the (SEM) term describe whats the SEM image looks like but not necessary what is actually might be or what is the material type is.