Performance characteristics of spark gaps with hydrogen-nitrogen & hydrogenargon gas mixtures

This paper describes an investigation into the performance of spark gaps with hydrogen-nitrogen, hydrogen-argon and hydrogen-only gas fills. Spark gaps were operated in both self-break and triggered modes of operation to quantify the self-break voltage and trigger voltage characteristics as a function of gas mixture and repetition rate. From these the gas recovery time was determined. An un-triggered spark gap was operated and the self-break voltage measured over a range of pressures and pulse repetition rates from 1Hz to 1,000Hz for each of the different gases. For operation in triggered mode, the required trigger voltage was measured for different pressures across a range of pulse repetition rates for the different gas mixtures.