2-D simulation on the corona discharge of negative needle-to-plane electrodes

The characteristics of corona discharge in needle-to-plane electrodes have been simulated by two-dimensional fluid method. It was assumed that the transport coefficients of nitrogen gas were only the function of reduced electric field. In this discharge mechanism, Townsend first ionization and a secondary electron emission were considered. The spatio-temporal distributions of electron and ion densities at three discharge steps were obtained by solving continuity equations using the flux-corrected transport algorithm. This paper also describes the effect of space charges on the electric field distribution.