Numerical model of A.C. glow discharge plasma anemometer via the coupling of gas flow and plasma model

Abstract

A new approach to build the numerical modeling of AC (alternating current) plasma anemometer is proposed. Firstly, the plasma model and gas flow model utilized in the proposed method are introduced. The plasma model (xpdp2) is built by PIC/MCC modeling method, while gas flow field model is the fluid model. By combining the flow field model and plasma model, the proposed anemometer model could be obtained. Then the effects of flow velocity on the ion density distribution, electron density distribution and electric potential distribution are studied from micro perspective, and the results show that charged particles move towards the direction of flow velocity. Another facts can also be observed, the movement of electron is not obvious, and flow velocity has no effect on the electronic potential. Finally, the effects of supply voltage, discharge frequency and electrode spacing on the discharge characteristics are investigated from macro perspective, and the results show that there is a nearly linear relationship between flow velocity and gap voltage, which indicate that the plasma anemometer could be applied for flow velocity measurement. The simulation result shows that linear relationships are pretty good when the frequencies are 2 MHz and 3.65 MHz. In addition, the result also shows that, within our chosen distance, small spacing is more suitable for high frequency plasma anemometer.