Design of an Apparatus for Experimental Validation of the Plasma Kinetic Model for Electrostatic Discharge

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) events are a serious safety concern when handling nuclear weapons. Current safety analysis operates under the assumption that sparks produced during threshold ESD events are overdriven and deliver all stored energy to a victim load. This assumption may result in safety procedures that are overly conservative unless a more accurate characterization can be made. Colorado School of Mines (CSM), in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), has developed a plasma kinetic model for electrostatic discharge in COMSOL to model threshold ESD events from dielectric surfaces. The first experiment in a two experiment series aiming to validate this model involves quantifying the proportion of energy a target surface receives from a charged surface during a threshold ESD event. Experimental results will be compared to simulations run by CSM. This thesis covers the design of an experimental apparatus to be used in this first series of experiments.