Effect of air flow on the micro-discharge dynamics in an array of integrated coaxial microhollow dielectric barrier discharges

Abstract

The micro-discharge properties and evolution in a 2D array of integrated coaxial microhollow dielectric barrier discharges are studied by using highly time-resolved electrical and optical diagnostics. The study is focused on the effect of the gas flow rate and gas residence time on discharge properties. The investigated integrated coaxial microhollow discharge geometry allows operating the discharge at exceptionally small residence times, which can be equal to or even smaller than the discharge period, at reasonable gas flow rates. The gas flow has an impact on gas heating, residual humidity, pre-ionization density and the densities of excited and reactive species produced by previous discharges. A unique voltage–charge plot is obtained with elongated periods without discharge activity. A very significant effect of flow on NO emission is observed that relates to the impact of flow on the NO production in these micro-discharges. Using the emission intensities of molecular bands of the second positive system of nitrogen and the first negative system of the nitrogen ion, effective reduced electric field strengths are obtained with a maximum equal to 870 Td. The reduced electric field decreases with increasing gas flow rate. This behavior is consistent with the reduction of the overall discharge intensity due to a reduced amount of charges present in the discharge gap. Both the flow rate and a reduction in water impurity changing the ion mobility can be responsible for the different effective electric field distributions at the highest and no flow conditions.