Influence of Electrode-ring Parameters on Characteristics of Annular Surface Dielectric Barrier Discharge

Abstract

Surface dielectric barrier discharge has large application prospects in many fields such as flow control, biomedicine, and so on. Based on a novel annular surface dielectric barrier discharge actuator, the influences of electrode-ring radius and discharge direction on discharge characteristics were investigated in this paper. Experimental results show that the bias of displacement current hardly changes with electrode-ring parameters. The ignition voltage of outward discharge is lower than that of inward discharge. The number of inward discharge current pulses approximately linearly increases with electrode-ring radius, while the number of outward discharge does not show any noticeable change with radius. The average power increases linearly with radius, but the average power of outward discharge is higher than that of inward discharge. All of the discharges present a mixed discharge mode of separated-channel discharge and diffuse discharge, while diffuse discharge is prominent in inward discharge, and separated-channel discharge is the majority of outward discharge. The discharge area increases linearly with radius. There is an optimal radius of inward discharge to get the best discharge uniformity and length, while the length of outward discharge decreases with radius. There are some differences of external electric field distributions between inward and outward discharges, which could explain the experimental phenomena quite well. This paper will be helpful in geometry design of actuators applied in various fields.