Investigating Flow-Induced Changes in Coaxial Cylindrical Dielectric Barrier Discharge Using Equivalent Circuit Modelling and Chemical Workbench Simulations

Abstract

This study presents the development of an equivalent electrical circuit model using MATLAB/Simulink to simulate the discharge behaviour of a coaxial cylindrical dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) and explores the influence of the flow regime on its electrical characteristics. Validation of the experimental findings was performed using Chemical Workbench (CWB). The simulations provided valuable insights into the DBD behaviour, facilitating its performance optimization. The equivalent circuit model demonstrated accurate predictions of peak current amplitude\({ (I}_{peak})\), root mean square of total current \(\left({ I}_{rms }\right)\), and microfilament discharge resistance \(\left({ R}_{f }\right)\). The study unveiled a significant impact of the flow regime on the electrical properties of the DBD. As the flow rate (Q) transitioned from the laminar flow regime (Reynolds number, Re = 300) to the turbulent flow regime (Re = 4500), the peak current \({ (I}_{peak})\) exhibited an increase from 60 mA to 80 mA for Argon (Ar) and 90 mA to 140 mA for Nitrogen (N2) gas. Simultaneously, the \({ R}_{f }\) decreased from 3.0 mΩ to 0.6 mΩ for Ar and 2.0 mΩ to 0.1 mΩ for N2. The impact of the flow regime on \({ R}_{f }\) was analyzed using the Peclet number (Pe) to gain a better understanding of heat/mass transport from the discharge to the surroundings. The MATLAB/Simulink and CWB models corroborated these findings, demonstrating excellent agreement with the experimental results. This validation underscores the reliability of the models in effectively characterizing the discharge parameters of the DBD.