Evaporation of metals by high-density (107 A � cm?2) electrical currents

Abstract

In the present work, the problem of time evolution of pressure and temperature profiles across a wire through which an electrical current with a density of the order of 107 A.cm -2 flows is solved. The correct boundary conditions for a metal surface are obtained for the case when this metal is rapidly evaporated as a result of high-power Joule heating. The pressure profile appears under these conditions due to pinch-effect and inertia of thermal expansion of the metal; the temperature profile arises because of intensive evaporation from the surface of the wire. The conditions under which a liquid metal is superheated are formulated. On the basis of the analysis of the experimental results on exploding wires, the conclusion is drawn that decay of the metastable state takes place near the binodal. It is shown that the distribution of fine dispersed vapor bubbles is strongly nonuniform across the wire and the process of expansion of the two-phase mixture is very similar to the motion of a wave.

Thermal hysteresis of mesoscopic phase transitions in fluid metals: From tantalum to aluminum and gold with their critical points and non-mean-field global diagrams

“…Our result supports in particular the concept of its occurrence near and slightly above the coexistence curve (i.e. above the binodal temperature of the mean-field approach) [17] but not at the spinodal temperature as its variant [16]. The effect is detectable for supercritical isobars as well.…”

“…We have supposed that the combination of the hydrodynamic balance equations with the mean-field theory of a phase transition [16,17] can lead to the principle mistakes. Especially it concerns the usual ideal-gas modeling of heterogeneous metallic vapor.…”