Statistical analysis of a micro-pulsed electrical discharge in water

Abstract

Abstract This paper reports the statistical analysis of three electrical parameters (breakdown voltage U bk , current peak I pk , breakdown duration τ bk ) for a pin-to-pin micro-pulsed discharge in water. Two complementary plots, U bk = f(I pk ) and I pk = f(τ bk ), have been used to identify four different regimes of discharge in water (cathode, anode, mixed and double) and a linear correlation has been shown between the breakdown voltage and the current peak. Moreover, this paper demonstrates that the measurements of the three electrical parameters follow normal distributions. As a consequence, the mean value and the standard deviation provide valuable information in order to perform parametric studies. Such an investigation has been carried out considering a large range of solution conductivities from 2 µ S cm −1 to 1500 µ S cm −1 , and the analysis of the propagation mechanisms of the discharge has been discussed.