Discussion on erosion in trigatron spark gap affected by current action integral

Summary form only given. Development of a trigatron spark gap, intended for use in medium power modulators, is discussed in this paper. Erosion of electrodes is an important content in a three-electrode spark gap. Based on thermodynamical theory, the erosion of a main electrode could be investigated. Especially, the erosion of a trigger electrode has great influence on the triggering characteristic of three-electrode. This paper proposes an erosion model of the trigger electrode based on discharge theory and micro-explosion theory. The model demonstrates that the erosion of the trigger electrode is related to material parameters, discharge current waveform and charge transfer. It is considered that the current action integral plays an important role in the erosion of the electrodes, including the main electrode and the trigger electrode. The experimental results agree with the theoretically calculated values very well.