Fast gas heating in nitrogen–oxygen discharge plasma: II. Energy exchange in the afterglow of a volume nanosecond discharge at moderate pressures

Abstract

The process of fast gas heating in air in the near afterglow of a pulsed nanosecond spatially uniform discharge has been investigated experimentally and numerically at moderate (3−9 mbar) pressures and high (200−400 Td) reduced electric fields. The temporal behavior of discharge current, deposited energy, electric field and temperature were measured. The role of processes with participation of excited and charged species was analyzed. It was shown that under the considered conditions the main energy release takes place in reactions of nitrogen and oxygen dissociation by electron impact and quenching of electronically excited nitrogen molecules, such as N 2 (A 3 Σ + u , B 3 Π g , C 3 Π u , a' 1 Σ − u) by oxygen and quenching of excited O(1 D) atoms by N 2. It was shown that about 24% of the discharge energy goes to fast gas heating during first tens of microseconds after the discharge.

Time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy of nanosecond pulsed discharges in atmospheric-pressure N2 and N2/H2O mixtures

“…Mintoussov et al [32] also observed an elevated temperature after the discharge. Their experiments have been performed in air at low pressure (<10 mbar).…”

On the Gas Heating Mechanism for the Fast Anode Arc Reattachment in a Non-transferred Arc Plasma Torch Operating with Nitrogen Gas in the Restrike Mode

“…, 2), while the remaining DE 14 = 0.4 eV is assumed to go into heating [17]. Finally, the energy which goes to gas heating due to reactions R19 and R20 is DE 19 = 3.44 eV [15] and DE 20 = 3.5 eV [23], respectively. Hence, the term Q R describing the gas heating rate through chemical reactions was calculated as…”

“…Higher electric fields, E/N [ 80-100 Td, produce a more efficient energy transfer from electrons to electronic states than e-V [11,12]. In turn, the electronic energy relaxation mechanism, E-T can be very fast compared to the V-T relaxation time (the so called ''fast gas heating'' [13][14][15][16]). In pure molecular nitrogen the mechanism of fast gas heating was mainly ascribed to self-quenching reactions of the metastable electronic state N 2 (A 3 P u ?…”

On the origin of energy: Metaphors and manifestations as resources for conceptualizing and measuring the invisible, imponderable

“…50 A closer look at the journal names and abstracts of these papers reveals that this phrase is mostly used in areas of applied physics, medical physics, and condensed matter physics, especially in the context of irradiating materials using light (e.g., laser, X-rays) or particle beams (e.g., electrons, ions). In this section, a paper by Mintoussov et al 51 published in the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, one of the more frequently cited 52 papers in this list, will be used as a representative case to illustrate how physicists productively use structural metaphors that elaborate a substance-like treatment of energy to convey their findings. The use of these metaphors furthers our understanding of energy in the particular context presented in the paper and allows the authors to go beyond the mere reporting of energy amounts in the form of numbers.…”