Modeling of reduced air plasma reactions for nanosecond-pulse dielectric barrier discharge

Abstract

This Paper proposes an efficient and accurate air plasma kinetic model aimed for describing environments of nanosecond pulsed surface dielectric barrier discharge (SDBD) actuators. In nanosecond pulsed discharge, variety of chemical species including electronically excited species are very sensitive due to immediate increase of a high reduced electric field. That's why air plasma reaction is very important on nanosecond-pulse. In this research, representative reduced air plasma reactions which have been studied by several researchers1, 2 in different discharge conditions were compared by carrying out zero-dimensional plasma computations. Sensitive analyses were then carried out to develop a reduced model decreasing computational costs and describing air plasma chemistry for conditions of nanosecond pulsed discharges. The developed model whose results were in good agreement with an extended chemical model3 was applied to a two-dimensional numerical calculation of discharge. Governing equations included driftdiffusion equations of each species, the Poisson equation for the electric potential, and Navier-Stokes equations for the gas motion. Results show that in nanosecond pulsed discharge the developed kinetic model which plays a major role in generating the plasma enhances both the accuracy and the efficiency of the plasma simulation. This work is expected to contribute to application of nanosecond pulsed surface dielectric barrier discharge research in flow control.