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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Impact of the electrode proximity on the streamer breakdown and development of pulsed dielectric barrier discharges
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2022) Wubs, J.R.; Höft, H.; Kettlitz, M.; Becker, M.M.; Weltmann, K.-D.
    The impact of the electrode proximity on the streamer breakdown and development of pulsed-driven dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) in a single-filament arrangement has been investigated in a gas mixture of 0.1 vol% O2 in N2 at 0.6 bar and 1.0 bar. The gap distance was varied from 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm, and the applied voltage was adapted correspondingly to create comparable breakdown conditions in the gap. The development of the DBDs was recorded by an iCCD and a streak camera system, while fast electrical measurements provided insight into discharge characteristics such as the transferred charge and consumed energy. The results demonstrate that breakdown in a smaller gap is characterised by a slower streamer propagation but a significantly higher acceleration. It can therefore be concluded that the proximity of the cathode has a strong impact on the characteristics of the streamer breakdown. However, after the streamer has crossed the gap, the discharge structure in front of the anode was found to be the same independent of the actual gap distance.
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    Extended reaction kinetics model for non-thermal argon plasmas and its test against experimental data
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2022) Stankov, M.; Becker, M.M.; Hoder, T.; Loffhagen, D.
    An extended reaction kinetics model (RKM) suitable for the analysis of weakly ionised, non-thermal argon plasmas with gas temperatures around 300 K at sub-atmospheric and atmospheric pressures is presented. It considers 23 different species including electrons as well as the ground state atom, an atomic and molecular ion, four excited molecular states, and 15 excited atomic states of argon, where all individual 1s and 2p states (in Paschen notation) are included as a separate species. This 23-species RKM involves 409 collision processes and radiative transitions and recent electron collision cross section data. It is evaluated by means of results of time- and space-dependent fluid modelling of argon discharges and their comparison with measured data for two different dielectric barrier discharge configurations as well as a micro-scaled atmospheric-pressure plasma jet setup. The results are also compared with those obtained by use of a previously established 15-species RKM involving only the two lumped 2p states 2p10…5 and 2´p4 … 1. It is found that the 23-species RKM shows generally better agreement with experimental data and provides more options for direct comparison with measurements than the frequently used 15-species RKM.
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    Upscaling from single- to multi-filament dielectric barrier discharges in pulsed operation
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2022) Höft, H.; Becker, M.M.; Kettlitz, M.; Brandenburg, R.
    A study on the scalability of discharge characteristics of a single-filament dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) to a spatially one-dimensional multi-filament arrangement driven by the same high-voltage (HV) pulses was performed for a gas mixture of 0.1 vol% O2 in N2 at 1 bar. Both arrangements feature a 1 mm gap with dielectric-covered electrodes featuring two hemispherical alumina caps for the single-filament and two parallel alumina-tubes for the multi-filament arrangement. The DBDs were characterised by electrical measurements (for peak current, energy, and power) accompanied by iCCD and streak imaging to determine the filament number and the discharge development in the gas gap and on the surfaces. It was found that the electrical quantities scale with a constant factor between the single- and multi-filament arrangement, which is expected to be related to the filament number. In the multi-filament arrangement, the pulsed operation leads to filament formation in the entire gap in lateral direction within less than 2 ns. Furthermore, particular breakdown or discharge inception regimes were identified for the multi-filament DBDs. These regimes could be generated at the falling slope of asymmetrical HV pulses featuring e.g. a double-streamer propagation, which was previously reported for single-filament DBDs. Consequently, it was proven that the discharge manipulation by varying the HV pulse widths obtained for single-filament DBDs can also be applied in a one-dimensional multi-filament arrangement, i.e. an upscaling based on the knowledge for single-filament DBDs seems to be generally possible.
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    Double-propagation mode in short-gap spark discharges driven by HV pulses with sub-ns rise time
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2020) Höft, H.; Becker, M.M.; Kolb, J.F.; Huiskamp, T.
    The object of this study is the investigation of spark discharges ignited by unipolar positive rectangular high voltage (HV) pulses with 200 ps rise time and (15 ± 2) kV amplitude with 3 ns duration full width at half maximum in synthetic air in a 1.2 mm pin-to-pin gap (tungsten electrodes) at atmospheric pressure. The discharge development was recorded by synchronised iCCD and streak camera measurements in single-shot operation, revealing a two-stage propagation mode. The discharge started with a fast initial breakdown across the entire gap (∼10 mm ns−1) during the HV slope, followed by a much slower (∼0.1 mm ns−1) propagation originating from both electrodes towards the gap centre. The combination of high-resolution diagnostics with numerical modelling indicated that the initial breakdown phase is caused by the rapid increase of electric field strength during the steep HV slope, which leads to the simultaneous fast propagation of a positive and a negative streamer.
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    Influence of surface parameters on dielectric-barrier discharges in argon at subatmospheric pressure
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2020) Stankov, M.; Becker, M.M.; Bansemer, R.; Weltmann, K.-D.; Loffhagen, D.
    The influence of the secondary electron emission coefficient, γ, and the relative permittivity, ɛr, of the dielectric layers on the characteristics of dielectric-barrier discharges (DBDs) is studied by means of numerical modelling and calculated results are compared with experimental data. The analysis has been performed for a geometrically symmetric, plane-parallel DBD in argon with copper electrodes covered by quartz dielectrics. A time-dependent, spatially one-dimensional fluid model involving the drift-diffusion approximation is applied for the numerical analysis of the DBD operating sinusoidally at a frequency of 24 kHz with applied voltages between 1.8 and 3.4 kV and pressures from 100 to 650 mbar. Main features of the model as well as the experimental setup and procedures are given. The modelling studies show especially the sensitivity of the results on the specific choice of γ and ɛr regarding the occurrence and intensity of discharge peaks, the appearance of one or more smaller peaks after the main peak, as well the establishment of a single periodic, multiperiodic or even chaotic temporal evolution of the DBD. In particular, generally good agreement between measured and calculated discharge current signals and the power dissipated in the discharge is found for γ = 0.02 and ɛr = 4.2.