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A more precise knowledge of the pressure field induced by a high-power spark is essential to estimate the mechanical damage that a lightning strike can induce near the impact point. In this work we propose a multiscale approach to validate a numerical magnetohydro-dynamic model that can predict the pressure field when a very high-power discharge is considered. Two simplified models for the arc resistance are considered and their respective results are compared. A brief analysis regarding the numerical issues involved in the solution of a very high temperature gas is included. The numerical code has been validated against the experimental data of a short-arc discharge using a current waveform prescribed by the aeronautical standards. Our study shows that a strong shock wave is generated in the first power peak and this travels away from the arc column maintaining a relatively high strength a few tens of centimetres away. The pressure in the arc region remains high for the whole discharge period.

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The corona effect, and in particular the Trichel phenomenon, is an important aspect of plasma physics with many technical applications, such as pollution reduction, surface and medical treatments. This phenomenon is also associated with components used in the power industry where it is, in many cases, the source of electro-magnetic disturbance, noise and production of undesired chemically active species. Despite the power industry to date using mainly alternating current (AC) transmission, most of the studies related to the corona effect have been carried out with direct current (DC) sources. Therefore, there is technical interest in validating numerical codes capable of simulating the AC phenomenon. In this work we describe a set of partial differential equations that are comprehensive enough to reproduce the distinctive features of the corona in an AC regime. The model embeds some selectable chemical databases, comprising tens of chemical species and hundreds of reactions, the thermal dynamics of neutral species and photoionization. A large set of parameters—deduced from experiments and numerical estimations—are compared, to assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach.