Characterization of an AC glow-type gliding arc discharge in atmospheric air with a current-voltage lumped model

Abstract

Quantitative characterization of a high-power glow-mode gliding arc (GM-GA) discharge operated in open air is performed using a current-voltage lumped model that is built from the perspective of energy balance and electron conservation. The GM-GA discharge is powered by a 35 kHz alternating current power supply. Instantaneous images of the discharge volume are recorded using a high-speed camera at a frame rate of 50 kHz, synchronized with the simultaneously recorded current and voltage waveforms. Detailed analyzation indicates that the electrical input power is dissipated mainly through the transport of vibrationally excited nitrogen and other active radicals (such as O). The plasma is quite non-thermal with the ratio of vibrational and translational temperatures (Tv/Tg) larger than 2 due to the intense energy dissipation. The electron number density reaches 3 × 1019 m−3 and is always above the steady value owing to the short cutting events, which can recover the electron density to a relatively large value and limits the maximum length of the gliding arc. The slow decaying rate of electrons is probably attributed to the decomposed state of a hot gaseous mixture and the related associative ionization.