Computational analysis for electrical breakdown in air due to streamer discharge in rod-to-plane arrangement

Abstract

In addition to the theoretical and experimental, the numerical simulation is the third way to study the electrical discharge phenomenon. In this work, a numerical simulation was executed within a rod-to-plane electrodes arrangement to track the streamer discharge between the two electrodes for different rod dimensions and air gap length distances. The simulation results show the path of the streamer channels, and their branches, from the rod to the plane. Also, the electric potential and field distributions were presented as contour plots. The plots show clearly the sites of the streamer initiation and growth and how the distributions were affected by the streamer growth between the two electrodes. The dc applied voltage was variated, and the minimum value that caused the streamer to bridge the air gap and touch the plane was indicated as the breakdown voltage. It was found that, the breakdown voltage increased with the increasing of the air gap length distance, the electric field threshold value, the rod diameter, and less of that with the increasing of the rod lengths.