Rail Gap Switch Using Porous Metal as Electrode

Abstract

For multichannel gap switches, the shorter the formative and statistical time lags of each gap, the larger the number of arc channels. As we examined the breakdown characteristics of a sphere/plane gap using a mirror-finished brass plate and a porous metal as plane electrodes, we confirmed that formative and statistical time lags decrease when porous metals are used as a discharge electrode, so we expect that the number of arc channels increases when porous metal is used as one of the electrodes of a rail gap. We compared experimental results to confirm this. As a result, in the case of a gap length of 1 mm, the number of arc channels increases when porous metal is used as an electrode.