Dielectric barrier discharge in helium at atmospheric pressure was studied by taking fast images of the discharge during one current pulse using an intensified charge couple device. It was observed that there appears a weakly luminous layer close to the anode at the very beginning of the discharge, then the luminous area gradually expands into the entire gap as the anode layer moves toward the cathode, and finally a highly luminous layer forms close to the cathode at the time around the maximum of the current pulse. The evolution of the discharge pattern indicates a transition from Townsend discharge to glow discharge.
A dielectric barrier discharge in nitrogen at atmospheric pressure was investigated by means of the electrical measurement, the fast photography and the time-resolved spectroscopy. By addition of a nitrogen flow, a stable homogeneous discharge was produced in a gap not longer than 3 mm and it was identified with a Townsend discharge. It was found that the discharge was extinguished while the voltage of the gas gap continued to increase. This extraordinary manner of discharge extinction was explained by the limited number of trapped electrons on the dielectric surface that could not provide a long-lasting Townsend discharge with sufficient secondary electrons. Due to the ‘memory effects’ the lowest breakdown voltage for a Townsend discharge in a 2 mm gap is only 4.9 kV in contrast to the streamer breakdown voltage of 8.2 kV. The working domain of the Townsend discharge is dependent on the frequency and the amplitude of the applied voltage. When the flow velocity increases from 0 to 140 cm s−1, the discharge current decreases from 2.9 to 2.3 mA and the breakdown voltage increases from 5.3 to 5.9 kV, which is attributed to the nitrogen pressure in the gap increasing with the flow velocity. With the gas flow, the intensities of the spectral lines from the second positive system of N2 are almost unchanged, whereas those from NOγ systems are significantly reduced. From this phenomenon, it may be inferred that the density of oxygen as impurity in the discharge gap decreases with the gas flow. This result is in agreement with the existing theory that less oxygen leads to more metastables N2(A) surviving to produce more seed electrons for initiating a Townsend discharge in nitrogen at atmospheric pressure.
Dielectric barrier discharge in neon at atmospheric pressure was investigated with electrical measurement and fast photography. It was found that a stable diffuse discharge can be easily generated in a gap with a gap space of 0.5 ~ 6 mm and is identified with a glow discharge. The first breakdown voltage of the gap is considerably higher than that of the same gap working in a stable diffuse discharge mode, which indicates that Penning ionization of neon metastables from the previous discharge with the inevitable gas impurities plays an important role in the decrease of the breakdown voltage. Discharge patterns were observed in the gap shorter than 1mm. From the experiments with a wedge-like gap, it was found that the discharge patterns are formed in the area with higher applied electric field, which suggested that a higher applied electric field may cause a transition from a diffuse glow to discharge patterns.
We studied the mechanisms of flame acceleration (FA) and deflagration to detonation transition (DDT) triggered by a combination of solid and jet obstacles. The Navier–Stokes equations with a detailed hydrogen–air kinetics model were utilized. Vast Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities generate intensive turbulence–flame interactions, leading to an increase in surface area and high propagation velocity. The jet position has a significant effect on the FA and DDT. A choking flame and detonation flame are obtained by the transverse jet with different positions and mixing times even though in a lower blockage ratio.
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