Similarity Study of Micro-Gap Dielectric Barrier Discharge by Numerical Simulation

Abstract

This article proposes a detailed analysis method for micro-gap dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), which can easily acquire the discharge breakdown characteristics in the electronic equipment with extremely small scales. A micro-gap plate-plate DBD fluid model is developed and solved by the finite element method (FEM). The prerequisites for the establishment of the similarity principle at low frequency are analyzed and validated based on the characteristics of DBD. The scaling relation of dielectric barrier discharge is also described. The results show that under different similar gaps with similar geometric shape, the current is basically the same, and electric field is directly proportional to the scale-down factor k, while electron density and current density are directly proportional to the square of scale-down factor $k^{2}$ . The similarity analysis method can be used to replace the geometric structures of different sizes, and the simulation results can be extrapolated to approximate the breakdown process and physical parameters at the extremely large or small scales. It has the advantages of easy understanding and operation, as well as important theoretical significance and practical value.

Keywords

• Dielectric barrier discharge
• fluid model
• similarity principle
• finite element method
• scale-down factor