Related papers: Interaction of streamers in air and other oxygen-n…
Positive streamers are thought to propagate by photo-ionization whose parameters depend on the nitrogen:oxygen ratio. Therefore we study streamers in nitrogen with 20%, 0.2% and 0.01% oxygen and in pure nitrogen, as well as in pure oxygen…
The simulation of the interaction of two simultaneously propagating air streamers of the same polarity is presented. A parametric study has been carried out using an accurate numerical method which ensures a time-space error control of the…
Photo-ionization is the accepted mechanism for the propagation of positive streamers in air though the parameters are not very well known; the efficiency of this mechanism largely depends on the presence of both nitrogen and oxygen. But…
Photographs show distinct differences between positive streamers in air or in a nitrogen-oxygen mixture (0.2% O2). The streamers in the mixture branch more frequently, but the branches also extinguish more easily. Probably related to that,…
We use numerical simulations to study the dynamics of surface discharges, which are common in high-voltage engineering. We simulate positive streamer discharges that propagate towards a dielectric surface, attach to it, and then propagate…
We introduce a 3D hybrid model for streamer discharges that follows the dynamics of single electrons in the region with strong field enhancement at the streamer tip while approximating the many electrons in the streamer interior as…
Positive streamer discharges have been studied and modelled extensively in air. Here we study positive streamers in CO$_2$ with and without oxygen admixtures; they are relevant for current high voltage technology as well as for discharges…
Streamer discharges can be used as a primary source of reactive species for plasma-assisted combustion. In this research we investigate positive streamers in a stoichiometric air-methane mixture at 1 bar and 300 K with a three-dimensional…
Streamer discharges play a central role in electric breakdown of matter in pulsed electric fields, both in nature and in technology. Reliable and fast computations of the minimal model for negative streamers in simple gases like nitrogen…
Pictures show that streamer or sprite discharge channels emerging from the same electrode sometimes seem to reconnect or merge though their heads carry electric charge of the same polarity; one might therefore suspect that reconnections are…
In this paper, we study how streamer discharges are influenced by a previous voltage pulse using an axisymmetric fluid model. We simulate double-pulse positive streamers in N2-O2 mixtures containing 20% and 10% O2 at 1 bar. By varying the…
Positive streamers in ambient air at pressures from 0.013 to 1 bar are investigated experimentally. The voltage applied to the anode needle ranges from 5 to 45 kV, the discharge gap from 1 to 16 cm. Using a "slow" voltage rise time of 100…
We compare simulations and experiments of single positive streamer discharges in air at 100 mbar, aiming towards model validation. Experimentally, streamers are generated in a plate-plate geometry with a protruding needle. We are able to…
Radiation is important for the propagation of streamers in dielectric liquids. Photoionization is a possibility, but the effect is difficult to differentiate from other contributions. In this work, we model radiation from the streamer head,…
We investigate the effect of humidity on the propagation of streamers in air. We present a minimal set of chemical reactions that takes into account the presence of water in a nonthermal air plasma and considers ionization, attachment,…
Streamer discharges are often operated in a repetitively pulsed mode and are therefore influenced by species left over from the previous discharge, especially free electrons and ions. We have investigated these effects by applying two…
We recently have presented first physical predictions of a spatially hybrid model that follows the evolution of a negative streamer discharge in full three spatial dimensions; our spatially hybrid model couples a particle model in the high…
Particle models for streamer ionization fronts contain correct electron energy distributions, runaway effects and single electron statistics. Conventional fluid models are computationally much more efficient for large particle numbers, but…
In this review we describe a transient type of gas discharge which is commonly called a streamer discharge, as well as a few related phenomena in pulsed discharges. Streamers are propagating ionization fronts with self-organized field…
Positive streamer discharges require a source of free electrons ahead of them for their growth. In air, these electrons are typically provided by photoionization. Here we investigate how stochastic fluctuations due to the discreteness of…