Finite element modeling of electrostatic discharge using a collisional plasma spark conductivity model

ORAL

Abstract

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is an important safety concern for many industrial operations, in particular those that involve risk for fire or explosion. A key aim for our work is to develop a physical model that can place limits on the current and energy of an ESD pulse that can be used for safety measures. We consider ESD pulses from charged, insulating materials to low-resistance victim loads. After implementing the full set of Maxwell equations in potential form using a finite element solver (COMSOL Multiphysics), we developed a framework for calculating the collisional processes in the spark channel plasma. We find that the energy that can be transferred to a low-resistance victim load is strongly limited by the surface resistance of the charged object and by the spark resistance, which is in turn fundamentally tied to the ionization of the gas. We have also analyzed simpler nonlinear spark resistance models that result from the thermodynamic energy balance for a cylindrically-uniform spark channel. We compared these simpler spark models alongside our more general plasma model and established which ESD regimes are valid for the simpler models.

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Authors

  • John Rose

    Colorado School of Mines

  • Mark Coffey

    Colorado School of Mines

  • Philip Flammer

    Colorado School of Mines

  • Colin Roberts

    High Precision Devices, Boulder, CO, Raytheon, Tucson, AZ, Seagate Technology, Minneapolis, MN, Ball Aerospace (retired), Bloomfield, CO, New Mexico State University, Brigham Young University, Colorado State University, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf, National Security Technologies, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Colorado State Univ, Colorado College, Utah State University, Advisor, Material Physics Group, Utah State University, Box Elder Innovations, LLC, JILA and Department of Physics, CU Boulder, JILA and Department of Mathematics, CU Boulder, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA, JILA, NIST and the University of Colorado, Boulder, NIST, University of Colorado / NIST, University of Colorado/JILA, Colorado Sch of Mines, Colorado School of Mines, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, UC-Berkeley, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw, Poland, JILA, University of Colorado and NIST, Harvard University and Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Univ of Colorado - Boulder, USAFA, Univ of Denver, Boyce Research Initiatives and Educational Foundation, Brilliant Sky Observatory, San Diego Mesa College, Utah Valley University, University of Colorado Boulder, Brigham Young Univ - Provo, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Sherbrooke, NIST Boulder, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Co 80525, Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (United States), Physics Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Co 80525, JILA, Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Alabama, University of Wyoming, University of Guelph, University of Guelph, Canadian Light source

  • Colin Roberts

    High Precision Devices, Boulder, CO, Raytheon, Tucson, AZ, Seagate Technology, Minneapolis, MN, Ball Aerospace (retired), Bloomfield, CO, New Mexico State University, Brigham Young University, Colorado State University, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf, National Security Technologies, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Colorado State Univ, Colorado College, Utah State University, Advisor, Material Physics Group, Utah State University, Box Elder Innovations, LLC, JILA and Department of Physics, CU Boulder, JILA and Department of Mathematics, CU Boulder, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA, JILA, NIST and the University of Colorado, Boulder, NIST, University of Colorado / NIST, University of Colorado/JILA, Colorado Sch of Mines, Colorado School of Mines, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, UC-Berkeley, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw, Poland, JILA, University of Colorado and NIST, Harvard University and Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Univ of Colorado - Boulder, USAFA, Univ of Denver, Boyce Research Initiatives and Educational Foundation, Brilliant Sky Observatory, San Diego Mesa College, Utah Valley University, University of Colorado Boulder, Brigham Young Univ - Provo, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Sherbrooke, NIST Boulder, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Co 80525, Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (United States), Physics Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Co 80525, JILA, Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Alabama, University of Wyoming, University of Guelph, University of Guelph, Canadian Light source

  • Colin Roberts

    High Precision Devices, Boulder, CO, Raytheon, Tucson, AZ, Seagate Technology, Minneapolis, MN, Ball Aerospace (retired), Bloomfield, CO, New Mexico State University, Brigham Young University, Colorado State University, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf, National Security Technologies, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Colorado State Univ, Colorado College, Utah State University, Advisor, Material Physics Group, Utah State University, Box Elder Innovations, LLC, JILA and Department of Physics, CU Boulder, JILA and Department of Mathematics, CU Boulder, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA, JILA, NIST and the University of Colorado, Boulder, NIST, University of Colorado / NIST, University of Colorado/JILA, Colorado Sch of Mines, Colorado School of Mines, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, UC-Berkeley, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw, Poland, JILA, University of Colorado and NIST, Harvard University and Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Univ of Colorado - Boulder, USAFA, Univ of Denver, Boyce Research Initiatives and Educational Foundation, Brilliant Sky Observatory, San Diego Mesa College, Utah Valley University, University of Colorado Boulder, Brigham Young Univ - Provo, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Sherbrooke, NIST Boulder, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Co 80525, Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (United States), Physics Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Co 80525, JILA, Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Alabama, University of Wyoming, University of Guelph, University of Guelph, Canadian Light source

  • Colin Roberts

    High Precision Devices, Boulder, CO, Raytheon, Tucson, AZ, Seagate Technology, Minneapolis, MN, Ball Aerospace (retired), Bloomfield, CO, New Mexico State University, Brigham Young University, Colorado State University, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf, National Security Technologies, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Colorado State Univ, Colorado College, Utah State University, Advisor, Material Physics Group, Utah State University, Box Elder Innovations, LLC, JILA and Department of Physics, CU Boulder, JILA and Department of Mathematics, CU Boulder, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA, JILA, NIST and the University of Colorado, Boulder, NIST, University of Colorado / NIST, University of Colorado/JILA, Colorado Sch of Mines, Colorado School of Mines, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, UC-Berkeley, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw, Poland, JILA, University of Colorado and NIST, Harvard University and Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Univ of Colorado - Boulder, USAFA, Univ of Denver, Boyce Research Initiatives and Educational Foundation, Brilliant Sky Observatory, San Diego Mesa College, Utah Valley University, University of Colorado Boulder, Brigham Young Univ - Provo, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Sherbrooke, NIST Boulder, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Co 80525, Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (United States), Physics Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Co 80525, JILA, Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Alabama, University of Wyoming, University of Guelph, University of Guelph, Canadian Light source

  • Colin Roberts

    High Precision Devices, Boulder, CO, Raytheon, Tucson, AZ, Seagate Technology, Minneapolis, MN, Ball Aerospace (retired), Bloomfield, CO, New Mexico State University, Brigham Young University, Colorado State University, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf, National Security Technologies, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Colorado State Univ, Colorado College, Utah State University, Advisor, Material Physics Group, Utah State University, Box Elder Innovations, LLC, JILA and Department of Physics, CU Boulder, JILA and Department of Mathematics, CU Boulder, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA, JILA, NIST and the University of Colorado, Boulder, NIST, University of Colorado / NIST, University of Colorado/JILA, Colorado Sch of Mines, Colorado School of Mines, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, UC-Berkeley, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw, Poland, JILA, University of Colorado and NIST, Harvard University and Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Univ of Colorado - Boulder, USAFA, Univ of Denver, Boyce Research Initiatives and Educational Foundation, Brilliant Sky Observatory, San Diego Mesa College, Utah Valley University, University of Colorado Boulder, Brigham Young Univ - Provo, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Sherbrooke, NIST Boulder, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Co 80525, Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (United States), Physics Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Co 80525, JILA, Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Alabama, University of Wyoming, University of Guelph, University of Guelph, Canadian Light source

  • Charles Durfee

    Colorado School of Mines, Colorado Sch of Mines