Microdischarge dynamics of volume DBD under the natural convection flow

TL;DR

This study investigates how natural convection flow influences microdischarge behavior in volume dielectric barrier discharges, revealing that temperature gradients enhance discharge activity and align discharge channels with gas flow.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the relationship between thermal gradients, convective flow, and microdischarge dynamics in volume DBDs, supported by experimental and CFD simulation data.

Findings

Increased temperature raises the number of microdischarges.

Convective flow velocity correlates with thermal gradients.

Microdischarge channels follow the gas flow direction.

Abstract

The impact of convective flow due to the temperature gradient between discharge cell electrodes and ambient air was studied for parallel-plate electrode arrangement. It was shown that an increase in temperature during the discharge operation leads to an increase in MD number in the discharge gap. The convective gas flow velocity also increased at a higher thermal gradient, and MD channels follow the gas flow direction. The velocity of convective flow was estimated by the CFD simulation and compared with the mean velocity of MD channels obtained by the particle image velocimetry method.