Gasdynamic effects on an electric discharge in air

Abstract

The overall purpose of this work is to develop a subsonic, turbulent, diffuse electric discharge operating at near atmospheric pressure for use as the pumping mechanism in an Electric Discharge Convection Laser (EDCL) . The work was done in two phases. The first consisted of a data collection phase during which the variation of discharge parameters was studied to determine their effects on the current-voltage characteristics of the multi-pin electrode arrangements used. The parameters studied included gap length, flow speed, turbulence intensity, electrode orientation, rate of voltage increase, and gas density through the addition of a diffuser. The second phase consisted of developing an interactive model which correctly reflects the dependences observed in phase one. A space-charge model resulted which correctly explains most major observed trends in gross discharge properties. Discharge stability is also discussed in terms of the model.