A simulation of the corona discharge by FCT method

The characteristics of corona discharge in needle to plane electrodes have been simulated by a 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 FCT algorithm. This paper also describes the effect of space charge on the electric field distribution.