The Characteristics of CFI Dielectric Barrier Discharge

Abstract

The high global warming potential (GWP) of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) pushed the researcher to find an alternative environmentally friendly gas for high voltage applications. Trifluoroiodomethane (CF3I) has attracted a great deal of attention as new insulation gases. This article has investigated the use of CF3I in dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) based on a 1-D model. Three symmetric waveforms named sinusoidal, triangular, and the clipped waveform was used as a feeding voltage with a frequency of 5 kHz and amplitude of 5 kV. The obtained results revealed that the discharge current consists of many sequential current pulses at each half of the applied voltage and the number of these pulses depends on the waveform of the applied voltage. The discharge current pulses are identical during the positive and negative halves of the applied voltage which refer to the CF3I providing a stable DBD discharge regardless of the polarity of the applied voltage. The first discharge current peak moment, for each waveform and during each half of the cycle, has been selected as the characteristic parameter to investigate the discharge characteristics. At the moment of the first current peak, for all tested waveforms, the results showed that the spatial distribution of the electric field across the gap takes a shape of the letter V referring to the minimum point of the electrical field inside the discharge gap dividing the gap to electronegative and electropositive parts.