Related papers: Macroscopic parameterization of positive streamer …
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…
Streamers are the first stage of sparks and lightning; they grow due to a strongly enhanced electric field at their tips; this field is created by a thin curved space charge layer. These multiple scales are already challenging when the…
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…
A 2D approach is used to simulate the properties of positive and negative streamers emerging from a high-voltage electrode in a long (14 cm) air gap for standard pressure and temperature. The applied voltage varies from 100 to 500 kV. To…
It is by now well understood that large sprite discharges at the low air densities of the mesosphere are physically similar to small streamer discharges in air at standard temperature and pressure. This similarity is based on Townsend…
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,…
The dynamics of positive and negative streamers is numerically simulated in atmospheric pressure air. It is shown that positive and negative streamers behave in radically different ways when decelerating and stopping. When the head…
Previous studies of streamer discharge branching mechanisms have mainly been generative other than predictive. To predict or even control branching, a reliable connection between experimental conditions and streamer branching needs to be…
In the high field region at the head of a discharge streamer, the electron energy distribution develops a long tail. In negative streamers, these electrons can run away and contribute to energetic processes such as terrestrial gamma-ray and…
The high order fluid model developed in the preceding paper is employed here to study the propagation of negative planar streamer fronts in pure nitrogen. The model consists of the balance equations for electron density, average electron…
This proceedings paper from 2004 contains figures of discharges in different gap lengths at the same potential that are not available elsewhere. The 2004 abstract: The evolution of streamers is known to depend on gas composition and…
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…
Streamer discharges pose basic problems in plasma physics, as they are very transient, far from equilibrium and have high ionization density gradients; they appear in diverse areas of science and technology. The present paper focuses on the…
We study how the choice of input data affects simulations of positive streamers in humid air, focusing on H2O cross sections, photoionization models, and chemistry sets. Simulations are performed in air with a mole fraction of 0%, 3% or 10%…
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…
Spontaneous branching of discharge channels is frequently observed, but not well understood. We recently proposed a new branching mechanism based on simulations of a simple continuous discharge model in high fields. We here present…
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…
We investigate the propagation of positive streamers in CO$_2$ through 3D particle-in-cell simulations, which are qualitatively compared against experimental results at 50 mbar. The experiments show that CO$_2$ streamers are much more…
The spatial non-uniformity of the electric field in air discharges, such as streamers, can influence the accuracy of spectroscopic diagnostic methods and hence the estimation of the peak electric field. In this work, we use a…
We present the first analytical and numerical studies of the initial stage of the branching process based on an interface dynamics streamer model in the fully 3-D case. This model follows from fundamental considerations on charge production…