Stationary multi‐species models of the electric corona discharge in oxygen

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a novel numerical algorithm, which can be used to simulate the stationary electric corona discharge in oxygen including some number of ionic species and ionic reactions.

Design/methodology/approach

Differential equations governing distribution of the electric field and space charge density for all ionic species have been solved using different numerical techniques: finite element method, method of characteristics (MoC) and donor‐cell method (DCM). Triangular discretization with linear interpolation of solution has been used.

Findings

Thickness of the ionisation layer in oxygen under normal conditions is in the order of a few hundred micrometers. Most electrons are attached to the neutral oxygen molecules forming negative ions in the drift zone. The current density on the ground plate basically follows the Warburg curve, but the DCM predicts a smooth current density distribution, while in the MoC the current density abruptly drops to zero at some radial distance.

Originality/value

This is the first attempt to solve this problem in the 2D point‐plane configuration. The results can lead to better understanding of all processes occurring in the corona discharge and provide information about density and distribution of different ionic species and current densities.

Citation

Zhang, J. and Adamiak, K. (2009), "Stationary multi‐species models of the electric corona discharge in oxygen", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 130-139. https://doi.org/10.1108/03321640910918931