Experimental and simulated investigation of microdischarge characteristics in a pin-to-pin dielectric barrier discharge(DBD)reactor

Both experimental and simulated studies of microdischarge(MD)are carried out in a dielectric barrier discharge with a pin-to-pin gap of 3.5 mm,ignited by a sinusoidal voltage with a peak voltage of 10 kV and a driving frequency of 5 kHz.Statistical results have shown that the probability of the single current pulse in the positive half-period(HP)reaches 73.6%under these conditions.Experimental results show that great luminous intensity is concentrated on the dielectric surface and the tip of the metal electrode.A 1D plasma fluid model is implemented by coupling the species continuity equations,electron energy density equations,Poisson equation,and Helmholtz equations to analyze the MD dynamics on the microscale.The simulated results are in good qualitative agreement with the experimental results.The simulated results show that the MD dynamics can be divided into three phases:the Townsend phase,the streamer propagation phase,and the discharge decay phase.During the streamer propagation phase,the electric field and electron density increase with the streamer propagation from the anode to the cathode,and their maximal values reach 625.48 Td and 2.31×10^(19)m^(-3),as well as 790.13 Td and 3.58×10^(19)m^(-3)in the positive and negative HP,respectively.Furthermore,a transient glow-like discharge is detected around the anode during the same period of streamer propagation.The formation of transient glow-like discharge is attributed to electrons drifting back to the anode,which is driven by the residual voltage in the air gap.

The effects of dilution gas on nanoparticle growth in atmospheric-pressure acetylene microdischarges

A two-dimensional multi-fluid model is developed to investigate the effects of dilution gas on microplasma properties and nanoparticle behavior in atmospheric-pressure radio-frequency acetylene discharges.The percentage of dilution gases(argon and helium)percentage varied from 0%to 90%,with the pressure kept constant.Simulation results show that the dilution gas percentage has a significant influence on the spatial distributions of the electron density and temperature,as well as on the formation of nanoparticles in acetylene microplasmas.With increasing dilution gas percentage,the electron density profile changes continuously from being high at the edge to high in the center.A mode transition from a mixed discharge mode with bothαregime and drift-ambipolar regime intoαregime occurs,which is associated with a sudden decrease in the electron density of the presheaths and an increase in the electron temperature of the bulk plasma.The mode transition point corresponds to the lowest number density ratio of hydrocarbon ions to acetylene.The highest number density ratio is observed at a dilution percentage of 90%,and causes more effective nucleation and coagulation of nanoparticles.Furthermore,owing to the high ionization potential of helium,the transition point moves to a larger dilution gas percentage in C_(2)H_(2)/He microplasmas.Finally,the growth of nanoparticles via coagulation is studied.

Simulation of nanoparticle coagulation in radio-frequency C_2H_2/Ar microdischarges

The nanoparticle coagulation is investigated by using a couple of fluid models and aerosol dynamics model in argon with a 5% molecular acetylene admixture rf microdischarges,with the total input gas flow rate of 400 sccm.It co-exists with a homogeneous,secondary electron-dominated low temperature γ-mode glow discharges.The heat transfer equation and flow equation for neutral gas are taken into account.We mainly focused on investigations of the nanoparticle properties in atmospheric pressure microdischarges,and discussed the influences of pressure,electrode spacing,and applied voltage on the plasma density and nanoparticle density profiles.The results show that the characteristics of microdischarges are quite different from those of low pressure radio-frequency discharges.First,the nanoparticle density in the bulk plasma in microdischarges is much larger than that of low pressure discharges.Second,the nanoparticle density of 10 nm experiences an exponential increase as soon as the applied voltage increases,especially in the presheath.Finally,as the electrode spacing increases,the nanoparticle density decreased instead of increasing.

Realization of homogeneous dielectric barrier discharge in atmospheric pressure argon and the effect of beads on its characteristics

This paper describes the realization of a homogeneous dielectric barrier discharge(DBD)in argon at atmospheric pressure.The effect of the morphology of the dielectric surface(especially the dielectric surface covered by hollow ceramic beads(99%Al_(2)O_(3))with different diameters)on discharge is investigated.With different dielectrics,the argon DBD presents two discharge modes:a filamentary mode and a homogeneous mode.Fast photography shows that the filamentary mode operates in a streamer discharge,and the homogeneous mode operates in a Townsend discharge regime.It is found that a homogeneous discharge can be generated within a certain voltage range.The voltage amplitude range decreases,and the breakdown voltage increases with the increase in the mean diameter of the ceramic beads.Waveforms of the total current and optical emission signal present stochastic pulses per half voltage cycle for the filamentary mode,whereas there is one single hump per half voltage cycle for the homogeneous mode.In the homogeneous mode,the intensity of the optical emission decreases with the mean diameter of the ceramic beads.The optical emission spectrum is mainly composed of atomic lines of argon and the second positive system of molecular nitrogen.It reveals that the electron density decreases with the increasing mean diameter of the ceramic beads.The vibrational temperature increases with the increasing mean diameter of the ceramic beads.It is believed that a large number of microdischarges are formed,and smaller ceramic beads have a larger activation surface area and more point discharge.Electrons liberated in the shallow well and electrons generated from microdischarges can increase the secondary electron emission coefficient of the cathode and provide initial electrons for discharge continuously.Therefore,the breakdown electric field is reduced,which contributes to easier generation of homogeneous discharge.This is confirmed by the simulation results.

Generation of air discharge plasma in the cavities of porous catalysts:a modeling study

A study of the behaviors of air discharge plasma inside a catalyst’s pores is important to understand the plasma catalysis mechanism;however,few articles have reported the generation characteristics of air plasma in the pores of catalysts.The production of air microdischarge in a pore was studied by a two-dimensional fluid model,mainly focusing on the effect of pore size and applied voltage.The results show that an increase in the pore size in the range of 20–100μm facilitates the occurrence of microdischarge in the pore.In addition,at an applied voltage of 9 kV,the ionization of air mainly occurs near the topside of the pore when the pore diameter is less than 20μm,leading to a low plasma density in the pore,but the time-averaged plasma density in the pore reaches a maximum value at a 70μm pore diameter.Moreover,the applied voltage also has an important effect on the production of air microdischarge in the pore.The existence of a pore of 80μm diameter on the dielectric has no obvious influence on the plasma density in the pore at 2 kV applied voltage,but the plasma density in the pore begins to sharply rise when the voltage exceeds 3 kV due to the enhanced air ionization at higher applied voltage.The study indicates that microdischarge can be generated in a pore with a size of tens of micrometers,and the microdischarge in porous catalysts will affect the catalytic degradation efficacy of gaseous pollutants.

Investigation on the characteristics of an atmospheric-pressure microplasma plume confined inside a long capillary tube

An atmospheric-pressure microplasma plume of diameter 10 μm is generated inside a long tube. The length of the microplasma plume reaches as much as 2 cm. First, with the assistance of an air dielectric barrier discharge （DBD）, the ignition voltage of the microplasma decreases from 40 kV to 23.6 kV. Second, although the current density reaches as high as （1.2-7.6）× 10 4A cm-2, comparable to the current density in transient spark discharge, the microplasma plume is nonthermal. Third, it is interesting to observe that the amplitude of the discharge current in a positive cycle of applied voltage is much lower than that in a negative cycle of applied voltage. Fourth, the electron density measured by the Stark broadening of Ar spectral line 696.5 nm reaches as high as 3× 10 16 cm-3, which yields a conductivity of the microplasma column of around 48 S m-1. In addition, the propagation velocity of the microplasma plume, obtained from light signals at different axial positions, ranges from 1 × 10 5 m s-1 to 5× 10 5m s-1. A detailed analysis reveals that the surface charges deposited on the inner wall exert significant influence on the discharge behavior of the microplasma.

Analyses of Microarc Oxidation Coating Formed on AZ91D Alloy in Phosphate Electrolytes

This paper studied the appearance transition of microdischarges, the phase composition and the morphology evolution of the oxide film formed by microarc oxidation on AZ91D magnesium alloy. The appearance of microdischarges population experienced apparent changes in size, spatial density and color, which was related with the changes of the type and quantity of the disintegrated gas bubbles generated at the interface between the electrolyte and substrate. Correspondingly, the diameter of micropores together with net-like fine microcracks increased when a higher voltage was employed. The coating was composed of MgO, MgAl2O4 and there existed a fluoride-enriched zone of about 3-5μm at the film/substrate interface.

Analysis of Power in an Argon Filled Pulsed Dielectric Barrier Discharge

In this paper an argon filled coaxial dielectric barrier discharge （DBD） has been studied to understand the detail of power transfer from a unipolar square pulse to plasma during discharge. A dielectric barrier discharge based diffuse pulse discharge and its electrical charac-teristics are investigated. A quartz coaxial DBD tube filled at different pressures is used in the experiment. A unipolar pulse voltage of different peak voltages and frequencies has been applied to the discharge electrodes for the generation of microdischarges. Two current pulses are used for two consecutive discharges per applied voltage pulse. The second discharge, which occurs at the falling flank of the voltage pulse, is induced by the charges stored on the dielectric barrier during the first discharge. It has been deduced that the power supplied to ignite the first discharge is partly stored to ignite the second discharge when the applied voltage decays. This process ul- timately leads to much improved power transfer to the plasma. The knowledge obtained from dynamic processes of the DBDs in the discharge gap explains quantitatively the mechanism of ignition, development and extinction of the DBDs.

Mode transition in dusty micro-plasma driven by pulsed radio-frequency source in C_2H_2/Ar mixture

Physical qualities of dusty plasma in the pulsed radio-frequency C_2H_2/Ar microdischarges are carefully investigated by a one-dimensional hydrodynamic model and aerosol dynamics model.Since the thermophoretic force has a great effect on the nanoparticle density spatial distribution,the neutral gas energy equation is taken into accounted.The effects of pulse parameters（dust ratio,modulation frequency） on the nanoparticle formation and growth process are mainly discussed.The calculation results show that,as the duty ratio increases,the mode transition from the sheath oscillation（a regime） to the secondary electron heating（7 regime） occurred,which is quite different from the conventional pulsed discharge.Moreover,the effect of modulation frequency on the width of sheath and plasma density is analyzed.Compared with the H_2CC^-ions,the modulation frequency effect on the nanoparticles density becomes more prominent.