Characterization of different types of gliding discharges: Electrical parameters and breakdown simulation

Gliding electric discharges have been intensively used in the last 20 years for practical applications in many fields: gas cleaning, gas reformation, aqueous solutions cleaning, microbiological decontamination, hydrogen production, surface treatment etc. All applications are based on the action of electrochemical active species produced by these discharges in different configurations of electrochemical reactors. Each configuration can favor one or other of the active species. The power supply of the reactors provides a voltage of a few kilovolts and limited values of the electric current, usually less than 1 A. After the initial breakdown of the discharge, a gas flow will elongate it until the energy density per volume unit decreases under the threshold level and the discharge will extinct. In this paper the evolutions of the electrical parameters are analyzed for three different configurations of reactors producing gliding electric discharges. Two of them are completely new. All three used the same power supply. A breakdown simulation of each configuration has been done using the COMSOL Multiphysics software. The analysis and the simulation allow the optimization of the structural parameters for each reactor in order to provide the best interface for active species transfer.