Investigation of Shock Waves Generated by Electrical Wire Explosion

Abstract

The shock waves generated by electrical explosion of wire (EEW) have been used for oil and gas exploitation in recent years. In order to discuss the characteristics of shock waves generated by underwater wire explosion, the experiment setup was build, which contains a high voltage power supply, a capacitor, a full-size designed electrodes and its support. The discharge part is put into a section of petroleum casing pipe. The shock waves were measured by a PCB blast pressure gauge, which is placed at a certain distance away from the wire core with flash installation and facing the center of perforation through the casing pipe. The results show that the energy deposition plays a crucial role in generating the shock waves. The peak pressure is mainly dependent on the vaporization of metal wire. The plasma channel discharge formed with a large energy deposition may enhance the shock waves. In frequency domain analysis, the shock wave has a wide-band frequencies range from 1 to 80 kHz. The strong shock waves play a main effect on the plug removal in the near wellbore area. Under a certain distance from the blast center, the shock waves with slow decay in time domain and frequency domain are able to stimulate the production layers in a long distance.