Quantitative modeling of streamer discharge branching in air

Zhen Wang, Siebe Dijcks, Yihao Guo, Martijn van der Leegte, Anbang Sun, Ute Ebert, Sander Nijdam (Corresponding author), Jannis Teunissen (Corresponding author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)
27 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Streamer discharges are the primary mode of electric breakdown of air in lightning and high voltage technology. Streamer channels branch many times, which determines the developing tree-like discharge structure. Understanding these branched structures is for example important to describe streamer coronas in lightning research. We simulate branching of positive streamers in air using a 3D fluid model where photoionization is included as a discrete and stochastic process. The probability and morphology of branching are in good agreement with dedicated experiments. This demonstrates that photoionization indeed provides the noise that triggers branching, and we show that branching is remarkably sensitive to the amount of photoionization. Our comparison is therefore one of the first sensitive tests for Zheleznyak’s photoionization model, confirming its validity.

Original languageEnglish
Article number085007
Number of pages10
JournalPlasma Sources Science and Technology
Volume32
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2023

Funding

Z W was supported by internal means of CWI Amsterdam, and S D by the Netherlands’ STW-Project 15052 ‘Let CO spark!’. Y G was supported by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) Grant No. 202006280041. 2

FundersFunder number
China Scholarship Council202006280041

    Keywords

    • branching
    • modeling
    • photoionization
    • streamer discharge

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