Study of Transient Spark Discharge Properties Using Kinetic Modeling

Abstract

The kinetic model simulating plasma chemistry induced by Transient Spark (TS) discharge in air is presented in this paper. TS is a dc-driven self-pulsing discharge of streamer-to-spark transition type. The presented kinetic model defines the temporal evolution of reduced electric field strength E/N, gas temperature, and density of neutrals N during the evolution of TS discharge, so that calculated electron density is in agreement with experimental results. We studied the mechanism of the streamer-to-spark transition and breakdown in TS using this model. We assume that the breakdown mechanism in TS is based on the gas density decrease and can be summarized as follows: heating of the channel → increase in the pressure → hydrodynamic expansion → decrease in N in the core of the channel → increase in E/N → acceleration of ionization processes. However, this mechanism is influenced by species accumulated due to previous TS pulses at higher TS repetition frequencies. Sensitivity analysis focused on major electron loss and production processes indicates an important role of the amount of O 2 dissociated by the previous pulses. A lower density of O 2 means a lower rate of electron attachment, while accumulated atomic oxygen atoms lead to acceleration of electron detachment processes. Index Terms-Breakdown, kinetic model, transient spark (TS).

A compact pulse-modulation cold air plasma jet for the inactivation of chronic wound bacteria: development and characterization

“…During the pulse-off time, negative voltage was observed because of the back electromotive force, but the reversed current was limited. Because of gas preheating and memory effect created by the previous discharge [44], the breakdown voltage of the next potential pulses is relatively lower, ranging from 1.25 to 1.5 kV. Similarly, the discharge current pulses are broader and smaller, ranging from 0.25 to 0.75 A (as presented in Fig.…”

“…During the pulse-off time, no power pulses were observed. Because of the gas preheating and accumulated excited metastable species—e.g., O, O 2 (a 1 Δ g ), and N 2 (A 3 Σ), which were produced mainly by the first pulse—the next four transient spark discharge pulses could be generated using lower electrical power [44, 45]. However, the width of the latter four discharge pulses was observed to be broader than the that of the first pulse.…”

Evaluation of Oxidative Species in Gaseous and Liquid Phase Generated by Mini-Gliding Arc Discharge

“…The timeresolved OES study and imaging of the TS revealed that the emission from the excited molecular nitrogen is generated mostly during the streamer phase, and the emission of the atomic lines comes mainly from the spark phase [42,43]. During the TS spark phase the heating of the gas up to 2000-3000 K was also observed, high electron density (= high degree of ionization) [44], and high degree of atomization [45]. We assume that the plasma generated by mini-GAD has similar chemical activity as the plasma generated during the spark phase of the TS discharge.…”

Effect of Water Content on Ethanol Steam Reforming in the Nonthermal Plasma

“…The maximum current is approximately 100 mA. The electron density ranged , from 10 16 to 10 18 cm –3 . The research was carried out with constant discharge power (25 W) and total feed flow (1 mol/h).…”