Evolution of Negative Corona in the Discharge-Current Limitation Mode: Transition from the Pulsed-Periodic Mode to Steady-State Burning

• Published in: Journal of experimental and theoretical physics Vol. 136; no. 2; pp. 250 - 257
• Main Authors: Kozyrev, A. V., Kokovin, A. O., Kozhevnikov, V. Yu, Tarasenko, V. F., Baksht, E. Kh, Vinogradov, N. P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01.02.2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Cathodes; Chemical reactions; Circuits; Classical and Quantum Gravitation; Electric corona; Electric potential; Elementary Particles; Evolution; Glow discharges; Nonlinear; Particle and Nuclear Physics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quantum Field Theory; Relativity Theory; Soft Matter Physics; Solid State Physics; Statistical; Steady state; Voltage
• ISSN: 1063-7761; 1090-6509
• DOI: 10.1134/S1063776123020097

The evolution of burning modes of a weak-current corona discharge in a diode filled with atmospheric air, having a pointed cathode and a flat anode, has been investigated. A theoretical description is performed in terms of an axisymmetric multifluid plasma model, including the kinetics of 9 types of particles and 25 plasma-chemical reactions. A discharge in a gap 10 mm long, with a needle-like cathode having a tip curvature radius of 100 μm, a source voltage of 8 kV, a ballast capacitance of 100 pF and a circuit ballast resistance of 1 MΩ, is described in detail. It is shown, both experimentally and theoretically, that the discharge has a lifetime of 180 μs and occurs in four clearly different stages under these conditions: (1) dark breakdown delay phase (0–20 μs); (2) Trichel pulse phase with a variable on–off time ratio and quasi-steady-state corona current component (20–80 μs); and (3) intermediate phase of monotonically rising weak current (80–130 μs), which ends with a vibrational transition to the (4) steady-state phase (130–180 μs), having a typical structure of glow discharge. The tendencies to a change in the corona discharge parameters with a variation in the feed voltage are analyzed. The results of theoretical calculations are in good agreement with the experimental data.