Abstract: Based on the experimental device of the water spiral pulse forming line(PFL) type electron beam accelerator, the effect of inductance between the middle and outer cylinders of PFL on diode voltage is theoretically and experimentally studied in this paper. The formulae are introduced, with which the effect of inductance on diode voltage is calculated. In addition, the diode voltage waveform is simulated through the Pspice software. The theoretical and simulated results agree well with the experimental results, which show that large inductance between middle and outer cylinders can shorten the waveform flat part of diode voltage, increase waveform rise time and reduce the diode peak voltage. When the inductance is smaller than 200 nH, a nearly square voltage waveform can be obtained in field