See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/3163037

The Effect of Transmission Lines and Switching Action on the Electrical

Signals in a Powerful Capacitive Discharge

Article in IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science · September 1990

DOI: 10.1109/27.57522 · Source: IEEE Xplore

CITATIONS READS

14 278

3 authors, including:

Hector Kelly Cesar Moreno

National Scientific and Technical Research Council National Scientific and Technical Research Council
121 PUBLICATIONS 1,087 CITATIONS 81 PUBLICATIONS 1,291 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Hector Kelly on 08 May 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE. VOL. 18, NO. 4. AUGUST 1990
The Effect of Transmission Lines and Switching
Action on the Electrical Signals in a Powefil
Capacitive Discharge
HORACIO BRUZZONE, HECTOR KELLY,
Abstract-A numerical model for the equivalent electrical circuit of
a capacitive discharge that includes the effects of Rnite closure time of
switches and finite transit time in the transmission line is presented.
An approximate analytical method to predict the oscillations that can
be excited in the circuit is developed. The numerical solutions of the
model are compared with experimental signals measured in a plasma
focus device.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE PREDICTION of the temporal behavior of volt-
ages and currents in high-power fast-pulsed electrical
discharges is important for a wide range of problems,
among them plasma production. The models developed
for calculating those magnitudes usually use equivalent
circuits with lumped parameters and ideal switches which,
while yielding satisfactory results for the overall behavior
of voltages and currents, are not sufficient to predict all
of the experimentally observed details.
Particularly, in plasma-producing fast electrical dis-
charges (pinches, plasma focus (PF) [l], etc.), it is a
common feature to observe nonpredicted high-frequency
oscillations at the beginning of the discharge and also at
other time intervals during which some magnitudes suffer
a strong temporal vanation (Le., pinch formation). This
last type of oscillation is sometimes associated with
plasma behavior (bouncing of the pinch [ 2 ] ; instabilities
[3], etc.).
In this work we present a model for the equivalent cir-
cuit of a fairly common electrical discharge, consisting of
a capacitor bank connected to a load through a transmis-
sion line, which takes into account the effects of finite
closure times of switches and finite transit time in the line.
The model can be extended easily to other types of cir-
cuits (Marx generators, Blumlein lines, etc.). Note that
the idea of representing some components of the electrical
circuit of a PF device as a transmission line has been pre-
Manuscript received June 26, 1989; revised March 21, 1990. This work
was partially supported by a research grant from the Consejo Nacional de
Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas, and a research grant from the Uni-
versity of Buenos Aires.
The authors are with the Laboratorio de Fisica del Plasma, Facultad de
Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Pabellon I ,
Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires. Argentina.
IEEE Log Number 9036728.
0093-3813/90/0800-0689$01.OO O 1990 IEEE
689
AND CESAR MORENO
viously considered [4], [5],although without considering
a realistic switch behavior.
The core of an appropriate modeling of the transient
behavior of fast electrical circuits is a good description of
the switching action. The switches currently used in high-
power pulsed devices are of the gaseous type (thyratrons,
spark gaps, etc.), which operate by means of the break-
down of a gas. They can be conceived as a time variable
resistance r s ( r ) , changing its value from very high to a
very low in a given time. The physical processes account-
ing for the time evolution of this resistance during the
breakdown in a given gap filled with a gas are complex,
and will not be addressed in the present work. However,
measurements of r, ( t ) performed by Sorensen and Ristic
[6] working with an overvolted nitrogen pressurized gap,
yielded rs( t ) 3 t - 3 . It could seem then natural enough
to model the switching action by a time variable resis-
tance. However, this procedure goes through numerical
difficulties when one tries to implement them. A better
way of modeling the switching action is to represent it as
an element with a time-dependent voltage drop Y ( t ),
changing from the applied voltage uo to zero. This type
of switch modeling was described in a previous work [7]
and will be briefly outlined here. The voltage drop U ( ? )
was represented by means of a Fermi-Dirac-like function
as follows:
uO[1 + ~ X P( --t0/7)]
V(t) =
I + exp [ ( t - t0)/7]’
Note that v(0) = vo and that for t - to >> 7,u ( r ) =
0. The parameter 7 is then related to the closure speed,
while the parameter to defines the instant of time at which
the switch closes. Also note that to must be chosen larger
than 7 to have a “smooth” switching action ( t o > 37
suffices); otherwise, the initial fall of ~ ( twould ) be un-
physically sharp.
In [7] it was shown that the measured behavior of the
discharge current of a capacitor on series inductance and
resistance was adequately predicted by an equivalent cir-
cuit using this model of switches, so we will use them
with confidence in what follows. Also, we have checked
in simple cases to see that the equivalent impedance of
the switch v ( r ) / i ( r ) ,where i ( r ) is the current circulating
690
through the switch, can be adjusted by a t law with n --I’
between 3 or 4 during the time interval in which the switch
impedance is larger than the equivalent impedance of the
rest of the circuit, in agreement with [6].
The set of equations for describing the electrical dis-
charge are presented in Section 11; whereas its solutions
for some simple but interesting cases are given and dis-
cussed in Section 111. In Section IV, an approximate an-
alytical method to predict the oscillations that can be ex-
cited in the circuit is developed. Finally, in Section V the
numerical solutions of the model are compared with ex-
perimental signals measured in a PF device.
11. THE MODEL
The equivalent circuit adopted to represent the dis-
charge is shown in Fig. 1. It is composed of two networks
( 1 and 2 ) connected through a transmission line ( a - b in
the figure) with characteristic impedance z o and transit
time 7/.Network 1 contains the capacitor bank (with ca-
pacity e,), a stray induction C , , a switch SIwhich con-
trols the beginning of the discharge current i , circulating
in this network, and eventually a resistance r , . Network
2 can contain several elements: a time variable inductance
C a ( t ) ,a resistance r2, and a switch S2 that controls the
beginning of the current circulation in this network ( i 2 )
and allows the introduction of an arbitrary time delay for
the beginning of the current circulation in network 2. To
generalize the solutions, we found convenient to express
the equations and the initial conditions in a dimensionless
form, by defining the following dimensionless variables:
T/ = ( C ,e , ) - I ’ * T /
V = ./U0 L2 = & / C l
11.2 = (Cl/e0)l/2i,.2/u0
= (eo/Cl)”2rl,2 A = (eo/Cl)I/2zo.
Using them, the dimensionless equations can be written
as
d2Zl/dT2+ d ( R , I , ) / d T + I , + dV,/dT + dVu/dT = 0
Vb - V2 - R2Z2 - d(LJ2)/dT
where
for describing the closure action of switches SIand Sz.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE. VOL. 18, NO. 4, AUGUST 1990
Fig. I . Equivalent circuit for discharge.
These equations are coupled by the transmission line
relationships:
Vb
12 =
= A(1; -
z; + 1;
I;)
1 at the extreme b (6)
Zl(T)= Ii(T - TI) Z,(T) = Z,(T - TI) ( 7 )
where If are the right and left current propagating solu-
tions along the line, respectively (subscripts a and b in-
dicate that the I’ are evaluated at the corresponding ex-
tremes of the line), and the line is assumed to be lossless.
The corresponding initial conditions are
Zl(0) = 0 dZl/dT(O) = 0 Z,(T) = 0, T 5 T2.
(8)
111. RESULTS
To get a gradual insight on the combined action of the
line and switches, we will start presenting the results ob-
tained in very simple cases. As the number of parameters
involved in the calculations is rather large, we will limit
our analysis to fixed values for A and TI:A = 9 and TI =
0.017 (chosen to match our PF device, see Section V).
Anyhow, we will show in Section IV that, in most prac-
tical cases, these results can be easily extended to other
numerical values of those parameters. We have chosen
Vb( T ) and dl, / d T as representatives of the circuit behav-
ior, because these are the quantities usually measured in
the experiments.
(1) Case A : Open Line Circuit
= 0 We will first consider the case in which the line is open
at its end ( d 1 2 / d T = 0). In Fig. 2(a) and (b) we show
(2) Vb( T ) corresponding to a l= 0.1 and 0.02, respectively,
for the cases R I = 0 and 10. As can be seen, Vh( T ) os-
cillates around 1 ( U , , = u o ) , with amplitudes depending
on the value of a,.Also, we note that the period of the
(3) oscillation in Fig. 2(a) is not equal to an integer number
of TI, as could be guessed beforehand. Furthermore, Fig.
2(b) shows the presence of higher frequency components
superimposed to the same frequency of Fig. 2(a). In what
follows, we will call fundamental frequency to the lowest
frequency appearing in the results and harmonics to the
higher frequency components (the values of the harmon-
 BRUZZONE et al. : EFFECT OF TRANSMISSION LINES ON ELECTRICAL SIGNALS
0
0 0.5
T
(b)
Fig. 2 . Curves of Vh( T ) obtained in open circuit case for R ,
(a) r I = 0.1. (b) r l = 0.02.
ics should not necessarily be an integer number of the fun-
damental frequency). From Fig. 2 we find a dimension-
less value of a23 for the fundamental frequency and a
value of a 190 for the first harmonic. It can be seen that
when R I = 10 the fundamental frequency is fairly
damped, but not so the first harmonic.
Case B: Short-circuited Line
We will now consider the case in which the impedance
of network 2 is null ( V , = 0). Fig. 3 shows plots of
d12/dT for al = 0.1 and R I = 0, 1 and 2. The funda-
mental frequency is 2 0 . 9 3 (very close to l , the fre-
quency corresponding to the C Ie,, oscillation) and is
strongly damped for values of R I much smaller than those
of the previous case. Note also that the amplitude of the
first maximum in the case R I = 0 is = 0.85 and not 1 (that
is, u o / C l ) .This is due to the fact that the line inductance
C I contributes significantly to the total inductance in the
circuit ($/ICI = ATI G 0.15). A first harmonic is also
present and is clearly less damped than the fundamental
oscillation. The results obtained using a l = 0.02 (not
shown) are very similar, but the amplitudes of the first
harmonic are .larger and higher harmonics are also dis-
cernible.
From the foregoing results we can draw the conclusion
that the main effect of diminishing the value of a lconsists
in introducing in the oscillations larger components of
higher frequencies. For reasons of brevity, we will use in
what follows al = 0.1.
-
69 1
-1 --
0 2
1
T
4 6
Fig. 3. Curves of d1,ldTobtained in short-circuited line case for T ,= 0.1
and R , = 0, 1, and2.
V dl /dT
-1 I !
1
= 0 and 10. -1 4 I
, o 2 4 6
T
Fig. 4. V h ( T ) for: 1) R , = 0, 2) R , = 1, 3) R , = 2 and of d12/dTfor: 4)
R , = 0, 5) R, = 1 , and 6) R2 = 2. In all cases L, = 0.1.
Case C: Line Loaded with Constants R, L
The results obtained from the model using R I = 0 and
L 2 = 0.1 will be presented. In Fig. 4, V,( T ) and d12/dT
are given for three values of R,: R2 = 0, 1, and 2. For R2
= 0, V, = L 2 d12/dT and both curves differ only in a
scaling factor. A fundamental frequency of g 0 . 9 3 and a
first harmonic with frequency = 65.3 can be seen, this last
distorted by higher harmonics. The effect of R2 # 0 is
illustrated by the other curves, and strong dampings of the
fundamental frequency and harmonics are observed. On
the other hand, the frequency values of the first harmonics
seems to be unaffected by the presence of R 2 . In these
cases, V,( T ) is essentially proportional to Z2, because the
resistive drop is much higher than the inductive one (note
that the maximum of Vb coincides roughly with the cor-
responding zero of d 1 2 / d T ) . It can be seen that a value
of R2 = 2 seems to be sufficient to damp critically the
fundamental oscillation.
Case D: The Role of a Switch at the Output of the Line
The addition of a switch S2 in series with other load
impedances should not change the general picture that has
been drawn up to now. The closure of S2 has two main
effects on the circuit: on the one hand, it changes the open
circuit condition at the extreme b of the line to a closed
one; on the other hand, its closure speed a;' (discussed -
later) will act as a new excitation source. A complete de-
692 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. la, NO. 4. AUGUST 1990

scription of all possible situations exceeds the scope of

this work and only the results of two calculations will be
presented here, both with r I = 7r2 = 0.1 and T2 = 1. The
effect of changing T2 is trivial if Vb( T ) is nearly constant
‘i
around T2; however, if Vb( T ) strongly changes in this
time interval, the closure of S2 can introduce higher har-
monics than those expected from the value of r 2 ,because
of the dependence of V2(T ) on Vb (see (2)).A time-de-
pendent inductance C2(r) was set in network 2, chosen
to represent the inductance of the current sheath of a PF 4 , , , . , , , , , . .1 ,, , , , , , 1
device and was calculated self-consistently from a simple 0 1 2
T
snowplough model similar to the one described by Elt-
(a)
groth [7],coupled with the circuit equations. Anyhow, we
2
will restrict the presentation of our results (for reasons
that will be discussed in Section V) to the initial phase of ”b

the phenomenon ( T I2)and in this time interval, L2( T )

does not change significantly from its initial value L2(0 )
= 0.15. In one of the calculations we set RI = 10 and R2
= 0; while in the other one, R I = 0 and R2 = 1 was used.
Fig. 5(a) and (b) show, respectively, the obtained behav-
ior of Vb( T ) and dZ2/dT for these cases. It can be seen
that, before S2 starts to close, Vb(T ) evolves identically
as in the open-circuit cases shown in Fig. 2, and once it I / I I
0 1 2
is closed, the circuit behavior is similar to the one found T
for lines ended with LR elements. (b)
Fig. 5 . Effect of switching action of Sz on V,,( T ) and d l , / d T for L , =
IV. ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS 0.15. (a) R , = 10, Rz = 0. (b) R , = 0,Rz = I .
In the previous section it was shown that a complex set
of oscillations in the current and voltage are predicted by This equation can be numerically solved for W iand W,.
the model. An interpretation of these oscillations can be The values of the fundamental frequencies and the first
made as follows. The equivalent dimensionless input two harmonics obtained for A = 9,T, = 0.017and RI =
impedance Zeqof a lossless transmission line connected
to a load of impedance Z, at its end can be written as
0 and 10 are WO = 22.46and WO = 21.95 j4.75;W 1 +
= 187.62and W ’ = 187.61 +jO.15;W 2 = 371.03 and
+
W 2 = 371.02 j0.04,respectively. As can be seen, a
good agreement with Fig. 2 is found. Besides, if the con-
dition W T , << is satisfied (“short” line), (10)can be
when acted upon by an excitation source with a dimen- solved analytically, yielding in this limit:
sionless frequency W ( j is the imaginary unit). As V, =
ZeqZI,an alternative equation for network 1 can be written
e E (1 - R:/4 + A/T/)”’
as z R1/2
Q = dZl/dT + RIZl+ Ze,Zl + VI and the condition A / T , +
1 > R:/4 must hold in order
to have oscillations. This approximate solution has an im-
where Q is the dimensionless charge of the capacitor. By mediate physical interpretation when written in dimen-
considering T large enough to make VI = 0, and looking sional terms:
for a solution of the type II oc exp ( j WT ), we arrive at a
+
complex algebraic equation for W E W, j W j :

0 = j ( W - 1/W)+ RI + Zeq. (9)

which is the frequency corresponding to the discharge of
For given values of T,, R I , Z,, and A , the real parts of the capacitor eoon the line capacity e,
through C I and
the complex roots of (9)give the natural frequencies of r l . Also, as A / T , >> 1 holds in most practical situations

imaginary parts (
damping constants.
e, (e,
oscillation of the system W:, * ), whereas the

W l , * ) give the corresponding

( A / T , = e0/e,), these results indicate that only rela-
tively large RIvalues can damp the open-circuit oscilla-
tion.
For the open-circuit case, Z, = 0 0 , (9)becomes In the short-circuit case, (9)becomes
0 = j ( W - 1/W)+ R I - j A cotan ( W T , ) . (10) 0 = j ( W - 1/W) + RI + j A tan (WT,).
BRUZZONE (’I c l / . : EFFECT OF ‘TRANSMISSION L I N E S O N ELECTRICAL. S I G N A L S
As before, an analytic solution for the first frequency is
obtained in the limit W T , << 1 in the form:
Wu = R , / 2 ( 1 + AT/).
Using the values of the parameters corresponding to the
calculations shown in Fig. 3, we obtain: W: G 0.93,
0.82, and 0.34 for the cases RI = 0, 1 , and 2. respec-
tively. The first two values are in good agreement with
the corresponding ones obtained from the numerical
curves, whereas the third value cannot be matched into
that graph because the circuit is very near to its critical
damping for RI = 2.
V . COMPARISON W I T H A N EXPERIMENT
For comparison purposes, the voltage between elec-
trodes and the time derivative of the current were mea-
sured in our PF device, operated at a relatively low filling
pressure value ( 0 . 3 mbar of deuterium ) to have a sizable
time delay of the breakdown in the gun. The values of the
relevant parameters of the device are uo =
20 kV; e,, =
14 pF; C , 21 nH; zo =
0.35 R; t , = 9 ns ( 2 0 parallel
1.8-m 7-R coaxial cables); and C 2 ( 0 )3 2.4 nH. In Fig.
6 we show typical oscillograms of the voltage and the cur-
rent time derivative, which correspond to uh and di,/dt
with the notation of the model. From the rise time of
we obtain T~ = 50 f 10 ns, then 7rl G 0.1. In the same
way, from the rise time of d i 2 / d t (or the corresponding
fall time of t i b ) , we obtain T~ = 50 f 10 ns (7r. G 0. I ) .
On the other hand, the experimental time delay between
the starting of both signals is t? = 540 & 20 ns ( T , 3 1 ).
With this set of values for r l , 7 r 2 , and T z , a matching
between the experimental results and the predictions of
the model can be attempted. By comparing the signals of
Fig. 6 with the theoretical curves of Fig. 5(a) or (b), good
agreement is found in all the frequencies predicted by the
model but not in the dampings. In fact, we have found
that before the breakdown in the gun occurs ( 0 I T I
l ) , a value of R, 3 I O is needed to reproduce the damp-
ing of q,(see Fig. 5(a)), but once breakdown of the gas
takes place, this value of RI drastically damps the main
circuit oscillation, which is not observed. On the other
hand, we cannot find a suitable constant value for R2 that
allows us to reproduce in detail the behavior of the ex-
perimental signals after the closure of SI.We are then led
to conclude that an adequate simulation of the initial stage
of PF discharges (and, likely, of any similar discharge)
requires the introduction of damping elements of a more
complex nature than constant resistances.
VI. FINALREMARKS
The model presented in Section I1 for calculating the
time evolution of currents and voltages in pulsed circuits
yields complex behaviors for these magnitudes in the
rather simple circuit configurations studied. Some of the
693
Fig. 6. Oscillographic traces of voltage (upper) and current time deriva-
tive (lower) measured in plasma focus device operating with filling pres-
sure o f O . 3 mbar. HoriLonlal division is equivalent to g 0 . 2 . in dimen-
sionless units.
oscillations predicted by the calculations (mainly those
that we called fundamental) admit simple physical inter-
pretations in limiting cases (and are then predictable with-
out the need of complex calculations); however, the rest
of the observed features are not amenable to easy inter-
pretations.
We would like to emphasize that it is a common expe-
rience for people working with fast-pulsed electrical cir-
cuits (plasma-producing devices, trigger generators,
pulsed lasers, etc.) to observe “strange” components in
the measured signals that are frequently discarded as
ZJ/>, “noise.” thus implying that these features are not ac-
tually present in the observed phenomenon but rather are
spuriously introduced by the measuring system. Indeed,
it is true that electromagnetic noise and other perturba-
tions (i.e., resonances of the measuring device) are mat-
ters of concern in many experimental situations but, in
view of the results shown in Section 111, the interpretation
of measured signals should be made with caution.
The attempt to reproduce with this model the voltage
and current measurements in an actual plasma discharge
as discussed in Section V is encouraging because it yields
good agreement with many of the observed features, but
it also makes evident the need for a deeper understanding
of the underlying phenomena (an investigation in this di-
rection is already under way). The results presented in
this work enable us to predict that, if an electrical element
in the circuit undergoes a relatively fast variation of its
magnitude (like the plasma inductance during pinch for-
mation), oscillations in currents and voltages should be
excited in much the same way as during the closure of
switches.
REFERENCES
J . W . Mather. in Mcrhod.\ of E.rpcrirfierirrr/ Phy.\ic,.c, vol. 9B. R . H .
Lovberg and H . R . Griem. Eds. New York: Academic Press. 1971.
ch. IS.
Y . Kondoh and K . Hirano. P/iy.\. Niricls. vol. 21. p. 1617, 1978.
T. Oppenlandcr. G . Pross. G . Decker. and M . Trunk. Pltrsrfitr P I ~ J s . .
vol. 19. p. 1075. 1977.
M. J . Rhee and R . F. Schneider, f E E E Trci1i.c. N u d . S u . , vol. NS-30.
p. 319-1. 1983.
R . F. Schneider. “An experimental study of the plasma focus device
 694
as a charged particle accelerator,” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of Mary-
land, College Park, 1985.
[6] T. P. Sorensen and V. M. Ristic, J . Appl. Phys., vol. 48, p. 114,
1977.
[7] H. Bruzzone, H. Kelly, and C. Moreno, Amer. J . Phys., vol. 57, p.
63, 1989.
[8] B. Carnahan, H. A. Luther, and J. 0. Wilkes, in Applied Numerical
Merhods. New York: Wiley, 1969, ch. 6.
[9] P. G. Eltgroth, Phys. Fluids, vol. 25, p. 2408, 1982.
* and strong collisional shocks.
Horacio-Bruzzone was born in Bahia Blanca,
Buenos Aires, Argentina, on March 3, 1943. He
received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics
from Buenos Aires University in 1967 and 1976,
respectively.
In 1969 he joined the Plasma Physics Labora-
tory of the Science Faculty of Buenos Aires Uni-
versity. During 1979 he was at Frascati (Italy),
involved in plasmas focus research with the I-MJ
device. Since 1978 he has been a member of the
National Research Council of Sciences of Argen-
tine. His current interests are in powerful electrical discharges, breakdown
gaseous phenomena, and MHD structure of current sheaths.
View publication stats
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 18, NO. 4, AUGUST 1990
Hector Kelly was born in Medoza, Argentina, on
February 14, 1948 He received the M.S. and
Ph D. degrees in physics from Buenos Aires Uni-
versity in 1972 and 1979, respectively.
Since 1973 he has been a Researcher at the
Plasma Physics Laboratory of the Science Faculty
of Buenos Aires University. In 1980 he joined the
National Research Council of Sciences of Argen-
tine. His current interests are in powerful electri-
cal discharges, MHD structure of current sheaths,
*
Cesar Moreno was born in Buenos Aires, Argen-
tina, on July 1 1 , 1959. He received the M.S. de-
gree in plasma physics from Buenos Aires Uni-
versity in 1989.
Since 1989 he has been a Fellow of the Na-
tional Research Council of Sciences of Argentina.
His current interests are in powerful electrical dis-
charges and computational physics.