Electrical Characteristics of Nonthermal Gliding Arc Discharge Reactor in Argon and Nitrogen Gases

Abstract

Gliding arc discharge (GAD) has the properties of both thermal and nonthermal plasma conditions. GAD plasma in the atmospheric pressure with argon/nitrogen and its characteristics are described. Some experimental results about alternating current gliding arc plasma generator have been obtained. It seems that the current density strongly depends on the gas type, and increased with increasing discharge current and gas flow rate. In addition, the discharge current of GAD in nitrogen gas (N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> ) is greater than one in argon gas (Ar) because of N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> needs more breakdown voltage than Ar. The intensity of GAD increased with increasing the gas flow rate. The oscillograms of discharge current in each case of Ar and N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> were obtained. The electron temperatures of Ar and N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> plasma were calculated to be 22 800 and 8400 K, respectively. The characteristics of both Ar and N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> gases in atmospheric pressure, such as current density, electron density with flow rates (5, 10, 20, and 40) standard cubic foot per hour, were investigated and all experimental results were classified. An experimental study was carried out through using of GAD device for medical treatment by exposing three human blood samples of leukemia to the nonthermal GAD plasma for different periods.