A Two-Dimensional Air Discharge Modified Model Under Unipolar Square Pulse Voltage at Low Temperature and Sub-Atmospheric Pressure

Abstract

In this paper, a modified COMSOL Multiphysics model with artificial stability is adopted, and the boundary condition developed in the previous paper are applied to the calculation of the photoionization rate. The main processes involved in air discharge were simulated by 39 plasma chemical reactions composed of 12 kinds of particles. The characteristics of low-temperature sub-atmospheric pressure air discharge under unipolar square wave pulse voltage with 13kV applied amplitude, 25 kHz-50 kHz frequency and a duty cycle of 50%-75% are discussed. The results show that: When the duty cycle increases, the average density of electron, N2+, N4+, O2+, O4+, and N2O2+ show an increasing trend, and the average electron temperature changes little; When the frequency increases, the average electron density, the average density of N4+ and O4+ show a downward trend, the average density of N2+, O2+, N2O2+ change little; The average electron temperature shows an increasing trend, but the duration of high electron temperature becomes shorter. When discussing a single period, it is found that the potential difference between the electrode and the plasma determines the direction of the electric field in the space. For the photoionization reaction, even if its influence on the negative streamer is not important, it still needs to be considered in the simulation. The effect of temperature on discharge is also taken as the research emphasis, it includes the following aspects: Firstly, at low temperature, the collision reaction and attachment reaction rates are increased, while the recombination reaction rate is almost unaffected; Secondly, low temperature results in the decrease of secondary electron emission coefficient, which indirectly increases the electric field gradient and the peak value of electric field; Finally, at low temperature, the mobility of carriers, including electrons, positive and negative ions, is increased, but the streamer velocity is decreased.

Keywords

• Low temperature and sub atmospheric pressure
• unipolar square pulse
• frequency and duty cycle
• particle density
• propagation velocity