Electrical Resistivity and Thermodynamic Properties of Dense Tungsten Plasma

• Published in: International journal of thermophysics Vol. 26; no. 4; pp. 1137 - 1149
• Main Authors: DeSilva, A. W., Rakhel, A. D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-07-2005
• ISSN: 0195-928X; 1572-9567
• DOI: 10.1007/s10765-005-6707-7

Tungsten wires immersed in a water bath were rapidly heated by a pulse current. The electrical resistivity as a function of the plasma density, which varied as the plasma column expanded, and as a function of internal energy was measured. In order to specify the parameters of the experiments to approach homogeneity of the physical quantities across the column, onedimensional (ID) magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the pulse Joule heating dynamics were conducted. As a result, the resistivity of dense tungsten plasma along with the complete set of thermodynamic quantities (pressure, density, and internal energy) were directly measured without using any equation of state (EOS) model of tungsten. Present results indicate that the dependence of the resistivity of tungsten on internal energy along isochors is flat at high densities, but acquires a strong negative slope at a density which is 8-16 times lower than the normal solid density when the internal energy is in a range of 5-14 kJ-g-1.