Electrical breakdown in air: new experiments and statistical and numerical models

Abstract

The electrical breakdown and discharges in air are of great significance for science and technology due to wide applications. Besides a breakdown itself, the pre-breakdown phenomena and relaxation after the breakdown have a significant role. In this report the analysis of DC glow discharge and its relaxation processes is presented. Statistical analysis of time delay distributions is presented and the statistical model based on the mixture distribution is applied to data measured with different electrodes from which electron yield is calculated. The occurrence of mixture distributions is physically explained based on analysis of the cathode surface. Also, by analyzing the memory curve measured in synthetic air the early and late relaxation of DC discharge are discussed. The processes responsible for the memory effect are identified and corresponding rate coefficients are determined. In order to confirm that the correct particles are identified, the 2D numerical model for relaxation is developed.