Development of an analytical model for nonthermal atmospheric barrier discharges

Abstract

Summary form only given, as follows. We report our development of a further simplified theoretical tool. This is based on an analytical model for diffuse nonthermal atmospheric discharges in a single-component noble gas. Space charges are taken into account. We demonstrate that though kinetic effects are ignored the developed analytical model can predict accurately the evolution of the discharge current density and the electric field. In particular we show that the waveform of the discharge current pulse is predominately determined by that of the applied voltage and that its peak value is strongly influenced by the temporal variation of the ion drift velocity. Such an analytical model of nonthermal atmospheric dielectric barrier discharges offers mathematical simplicity and physical clarity that are often crucial in gaining physical insights and deducing scaling laws. It should be a simple first-stop tool to develop basic understanding of the discharge dynamics under different operation conditions (e.g. gas composition and applied voltage) as well as evolve new and different operation schemes of nonthermal atmospheric gas plasmas before embarking on full-scale experimentation or/and numerical simulation.