Simplified digital acquisition of microdischarge pulses

Statistics of Electron Avalanches and Streamers

“…where D is the so-called fractal dimension. The different statistical behaviour of lowly and highly populated avalanches has been verified many times in our laboratory [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] when we have measured the height statistics of DC partial discharges with sandwiched electrode systems. Depending on the actual experimental conditions, partial discharges are in fact electron avalanches often mixed with streamers (see Fig.…”

“…Relations (11) and (13) are generalised statistical distributions that include the original Furry distribution (1) and its exponential approximation as special cases ( j = 0) when no side avalanches are generated.…”

“…whereas populations of pre-streamer (n Î( , ) 10 10 5 8) and streamer (n >10 8 ) avalanches are governed by another statistical law [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17], which is different from that of Furry. The experimental data from these highly populated avalanches is best fitted [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] by the Pareto distribution function…”

On Deterministic Chaos in Microdischarge Phenomena

“…The resistor is connected in series with the electrode system and experiences electric pulses initiated by microdischarges. The pulsating signal was amplified and digitised in a digitiser of unique construction [3,4] and then processed by a special software implemented on a PC. The pulsating signal has the character of a discrete time series…”

Fractal multiplication of electron avalanches and streamers: new mechanism of electrical breakdown?

“…For the last two decades our laboratory has been interested, among other things, also in the properties of electron avalanches (including partial discharges) [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] and has paid great attention especially to deviations from the Furry distribution [13,[15][16][17][18][19][20]. In order to prove thoroughly that the deviations have nothing to do with experimental artefacts, it was necessary to build up an ultra-fast digitiser for the acquisition of avalanche electrical pulses that would be capable of distinguishing and registering all the pulses without the loss of any of them or without their integration into a single larger avalanche which was the main argument in favour of the experimental artefact.…”