Tracking an individual streamer branch among others in a pulsed induced discharge

Abstract

The electro-dynamical properties and the mutual influence of several simultaneously propagating streamers are investigated in a point-to-plane configuration in air at atmospheric pressure under impulse voltage. When a fast and short high voltage pulse is applied to the point, a bunch of streamer branches develops into the interval. Since no previous ionized path has been traced before in the gap, streamers spread in the whole gap, branching while propagating. This behaviour is quite different from streamers under DC voltage conditions, which successively extend on the point–plane axis. The aim of this work is an attempt to distinguish the properties of an individual streamer simultaneously propagating with the others, by means of fast techniques based on simultaneous streak and still photographs and space-time decoupled currents measurements. Especially, their mean velocity can be estimated. In most cases, an axial streamer is observed, propagating faster than the others. This result can be interpreted in terms of the electric field space distribution by means of a three-dimensional electrostatic solver. This analysis shows that a mutual electro-dynamical influence is exerted from one streamer on another.