Development of a 20 kJ Sparker for High Resolution Ocean Seismic Survey

An ocean sparker with a stored energy of 20 kJ was developed for high resolution ocean seismic survey. The sparker is mainly composed of a high voltage high frequency charging supply, energy storage capacitors, a discharging switch and discharging electrodes. The H-bridge inverter and series resonant mode were adopted in the charging supply, and a dry high voltage transformer was used to improve the safety and maintenance, the average charging rate exceeded 4 kJ/s. An optical fiber connected between the high voltage system and the control system was used to isolate high voltage and transmit the high voltage signal. The high voltage electrodes of the discharging electrodes consisted of several hundreds of electrodes. The experimental results show that the sparker can be operated at repetition rates of 12 shots/min, and can meet the expected design requirements. Further field tests will be done in the near future.