Measurements of power dissipated in an atmospheric pressure plasma jet device with double plasma discharge ignition

TL;DR

This study measures and analyzes the power dissipation in atmospheric pressure plasma jets, highlighting the contributions of primary and secondary discharges and their electrical characteristics under different conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a method to separate primary and total power in APPJs and analyzes their electrical behavior, revealing polarity-dependent circuit characteristics.

Findings

Primary discharge power variation is minimal compared to plasma jet power.

Electrical load differs between negative and positive discharge phases.

Electrical circuit model varies with voltage polarity.

Abstract

Atmospheric pressure plasma jets (APPJs) are versatile devices with numerous applications. This work focuses on APPJs generated at the tip of long, flexible tubes using the jet transfer technique. The plasma source consists of a primary discharge and a secondary discharge forming the plasma jet. Discharge power measurements were carried out in a way that it was possible to separate the contribution of the primary discharge from the total power dissipated by the plasma source. Both power and effective current were analyzed under different operating conditions. The results show that the variation of the primary discharge power is much lower than the power dissipated by the plasma jet. Additionally, the electrical characteristics of the plasma device were analyzed. Notable differences were observed between the negative and positive phases of the discharge, with a more resistive load in the negative one, which suggests that the electrical equivalent circuit model changes according to the voltage polarity.