Influence of the mode of energy input into discharge channel on efficiency of crushing of quartz raw materials

Abstract

Experimental and numerical studies of the influence of the mode of energy input into the discharge channel on the efficiency of the transformation of electrical energy into mechanical work are carried out. In the experiments, generators with different time constants of the discharge, with a discharge half-period of 0.4–0.9 µs at close levels of stored energy in a high-voltage capacitive storage were used. The quartz material was crushed both after thermal softening and without it. It has been experimentally obtained that the efficiency of crushing quartz raw materials to a fraction of 100–300 μm increases with a decrease in the duration and an increase in the power of the output pulse of the generator. The highest yield of the useful fraction of quartz 100–300 µm was realized on a generator with the lowest time constant of the discharge. To interpret the results obtained, a hydrodynamic model of the expansion of a conducting channel in a liquid was used, taking into account the processes in the discharge circuit of the generator and the plasma kinetics in the discharge channel. The simulation has shown that a decrease in the time of energy input into the discharge channel with an equal stored energy of the generators provides a large compression pressure amplitude in the wave and a shorter pulse duration. Herewith, the total energy in the acoustic pulses in both modes turned out to be approximately equal.