Study on Townsend first ionization coefficient in a streamer filament of the pulsed electric discharge in water

Streamers in water usually consist of several weakly ionized gaseous filaments. It is important to understand the ionization and excitation processes occurring in a streamer filament. In this paper, we studied the Townsend first ionization coefficient α in a streamer filament. The emission images of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics of plasmas 2022-09, Vol.29 (9)
Main Authors: Yang, Yuantian, Wen, Xiaoqiong, Wang, Liru, Wang, Xue
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Electric discharges
Electron density profiles
Emission
Filaments
Glow discharges
High speed cameras
Image acquisition
Ionization coefficients
Low pressure
Measurement methods
Plasma physics
Profile method (forecasting)
Water discharge
Water vapor
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Summary:Streamers in water usually consist of several weakly ionized gaseous filaments. It is important to understand the ionization and excitation processes occurring in a streamer filament. In this paper, we studied the Townsend first ionization coefficient α in a streamer filament. The emission images of streamers in water were acquired by using an ultra-high speed camera system. Based on the emission images, it was found that the luminance of a streamer filament decreased exponentially as the distance increased from the anode tip. The Townsend first ionization coefficient in the streamer filament in water was then estimated by the emission profile method. It was found that the Townsend first ionization coefficient in a streamer filament was 5.3 cm−1 on average and did not depend on the water conductivity or the applied voltage of interest in the present paper. The Townsend first ionization coefficient estimated by the emission profile method is in agreement with that deduced from the electron density profile of the streamer filament in water, indicating that the emission profile method for measuring the Townsend first ionization coefficient can be applicable to the streamers in water. We also estimated the reduced Townsend first ionization coefficient α/N in a streamer filament in water and found that the obtained value for α/N was four orders of magnitude lower than those obtained from the glow discharge in low pressure water vapor, but at least ten orders of magnitude greater than those predicted by the empirical formulas.
ISSN:1070-664X
1089-7674
DOI:10.1063/5.0099396