Gas flow dependence of atmospheric pressure plasma needle discharge characteristics

Abstract

In this paper, a two-dimensional coupled model of neutral gas flow and plasma dynamics is presented to explain the gas flow dependence of discharge characteristics in helium plasma needle at atmospherics pressure. The diffusional mixing layer between the helium jet core and the ambient air has a moderate effect on the streamer propagation. The obtained simulation results present that the streamer shows the ring-shaped emission profile at a moderate gas flow rate. The key chemical reactions which drive the streamer propagation are electron-impact ionization of helium neutral, nitrogen and oxygen molecules. At a moderate gas flow rate of 0.5 slm, a significant increase in propagation velocity of the streamer is observed due to appropriate quantity of impurities air diffuse into the helium. Besides, when the gas flow rate is below 0.35 slm, the radial density of ground-state atomic oxygen peaks along the axis of symmetry. However, when the gas flow rate is above 0.5 slm, a ring-shaped density distribution appears. The peak density is on the order of 1020 m−3 at 10 ns in our work.