Plasma jet for environmental applications: Computational study of the electric field distribution between electrodes

Gliding Arc discharges are recently used in many environmental, biomedical and industrial applications. The discharge is generated between two diverging electrodes at atmospheric pressure. In this paper we present the computational study of the influence of I. the geometry shape of electrodes II. distance of the gap between electrodes and III. the bias on the powered electrode on electric field distribution between the electrodes. We focused our attention especially on the influence of these parameters on the breakdown voltage needed for the discharge ignition. The mathematical model is based on standard equations of electrostatics, the numerical realization and data processing was performed in the program COMSOL Multiphysics. It was found that the geometry shape of electrodes significantly influences the value of the breakdown voltage.