On the static behaviour of dielectric barrier discharges in uniform electric fields

Abstract

This paper is aimed at calculating the electric field in a parallel-plate electrode system with one of the plates covered with a dielectric layer. With deposition of charge on the dielectric surface, the field in the gas gap is reduced with a subsequent shrinking of the discharge activity in the gap. The charge deposition on the dielectric surface proceeds to the maximum possible value when the normal component of the surface field vanishes. Not only the normal field component but also the field in all the gap vanishes at the maximum possible charge on the dielectric surface with a subsequent suppression of the gap micro-discharges. An accurate method of charge simulation was used for field calculation irrespective of the thickness of the dielectric layer and the value of the charge deposited on the dielectric surface. The threshold and suppression voltages of the gap micro-discharges are calculated based on a criterion for self-sustained discharge-activity in the gap. The calculated voltages are compared with those estimated before and those measured for different gap lengths.

Comparative study on various dielectric barriers and their effect on breakdown voltage

“…These surface charges are the result of impact ionisation near the HV electrode. In [13][14][15], a charge simulation technique was used to investigate the breakdown voltage and electric field in needle/plane electrodes while one of electrodes was coated with a dielectric barrier. Blennow and Sjoberg [4] presented a model for describing a uniform electric field distribution in a plate-plate electrode configuration where the ground plate was covered by a dielectric layer.…”