Vol. 11, No.1, pp.98-103 (2017)
Behavior of Pulsed Streamer Discharge in a Wire-Plate Electrode with Varied Gap Distances
K. Nakamura1, D. Wang2, and T. Namihira2
1Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, Japan
2Institute of Pulsed Power Science, Kumamoto University, Japan
Abstract
Streamer discharge plasma, a type of non-thermal plasma, is a generation method of reactive radicals and ozone used for treatment of exhausted gas. Our laboratory has shown that nanosecond pulsed discharge with a pulse duration of 5 ns can generate ozone with the highest efficiency in the world. Also, as our previous research, it was shown that discharge electrodes with short gap distance succeeded to increase the concentration of ozone generation. Thus, the distance between electrodes is considered a very important parameter for applications using pulsed streamer discharge. However, how the distance between electrodes affects the pulsed discharge remains unclarified. In this research, propagation processes of pulsed streamer discharge in 4 wire-plate electrodes with different distances between electrodes were observed using an ICCD camera. The results show that, as the distance between electrodes was shortened from 45 mm to 30 mm, applied voltage decreased from 80 kV to 60.3 kV while discharge current increased from 149 A to 190 A; streamer head velocity didn't change from about 1.4 mm/ns; and streamer head density at propagation onset time showed no change, but conversely increasing when the streamer head reaches the plate electrode.
Keywords - Pulsed power, streamer discharge, streamer head, distance between electrodes