Investigation on collisions of filament pairs in dielectric barrier discharge

Abstract

Collisions of filament pairs in a hexagonal superlattice pattern in dielectric barrier discharge are investigated on different timescales. In the evolution of the pattern, the space scale of each hexagon cell decreases with the increasing voltage. The duration of one collision is seven half voltage cycles at least. Two stable orientations of a pair are approximately perpendicular to each other and the orientational changes occurring during the entire colliding process should be a multiple of 30°. The time interval between two consecutive collisions decreases with the increasing voltage. The distance between the paired spots decreases nonmonotonically. Based on the discharge order of the pattern, it is inferred that the collision should be the interaction between a discharging filament and the surface charges deposited by another discharged filament, and the nonmonotonic decrease of distance D is explained.