Further studies of the fragmentation of wires due to pulsed currents

The phenomenon whereby wires may fragment in the solid state when subject to a sufficiently high pulsed current was studied. The study considered the creation of stress waves due to both a thermal mechanism arising from Joule heating, and a Lorentz force mechanism. It was found that fractures occurred successively due to a longitudinal tensile stress. Two cases, including a double fracture at each end of a clamped wire, and a fracture at the centerplane of a wire with free ends were considered.