Space and Time Domain Finite Volume Method for Numerical Simulation of Negative Corona Discharge in Air

Abstract

-In this paper, a space and time domain finite volume method is proposed to study the characteristics of space charges on a bar-to-plate geometry. Three ionic species, namely, positive ions, negative ions, and electrons, are considered. A finite element method is used to solve Poisson's equation, and a finite volume method is used to solve charge transport equation. Different time steps based on space domain and time domain are applied to improve computational efficiency when solving the charge transport equation. Four points are marked to indicate the characteristics of a Trichel pulse. Density distributions of three ionic species and electrical field strength along the axis are presented. Trichel pulses on a bar-to-plate geometry are simulated and compared with the experimental results. Good agreements are obtained, thereby confirming the validity of the proposed method.

Simulation of the AC corona phenomenon with experimental validation

“…are the inflow parts of the boundaries ∂Ω M and ∂Ω A respectively, n b p,q is a set of boundary functions representing the background concentration of ions and electrons, φ b is the boundary potential of the electrodes, and E b n is the boundary normal electric field. In the fourth equation of (7) we have considered the phenomenon of secondary electron emission where γ is the secondary electron emission coefficient.…”

“…To cite just a few, in [2] a rod-plane configuration has been used to test a fully implicit method capable of overcoming many of the time-step restrictions that may affect plasma simulation codes-see for instance [3][4][5]; in [6], a mixed finite element method (FEM) and a flux correct transport (FCT) method have been used to solve, respectively, the electrostatic and drift equations that compose the corona problem. Another very popular technique is the finite volume method-see [7], or the particle-in-cell (PIC) approach-see [8,9].…”