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Influence of the voltage‐time derivative in X‐ray emission from laboratory sparks
Author(s) -
March Víctor,
Montanyà Joan
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2010gl044543
Subject(s) - derivative (finance) , astrophysics , physics , voltage , x ray , environmental science , computational physics , astronomy , optics , quantum mechanics , financial economics , economics
X‐rays produced by laboratory sparks in air at atmospheric pressure for rod‐rod and rod‐plane configurations were observed. A total of 510 sparks were applied for both polarities. The paper shows the effects of the voltage rise time and the peak voltage in the generation of X‐rays. It is found here that shorter rise times and high peak voltages tend to produce more X‐rays emissions with higher energies than longer front waveforms or lower peak voltages. In a similar way, higher voltage variations produce more energetic emissions. This finding suggests that the variation of the electric field before the breakdown can play a fundamental role in the X‐ray production. The results are similar with the observations of X‐rays produced in natural lightning where detections have been associated to leader steps before the return stroke.