Repetitive pulse simulations of streamer discharges with detailed plasma chemistry and gas heating

We perform numerical simulations of streamer discharges under repetitively pulsed conditions. We use the drift-diffusion model with the Poisson's equation in a cylindrical symmetric geometry. Our model uses a detailed plasma chemistry data set consisting of 379 reactions, and 41 species. The reaction set consists of processes like ionization, attachment, detachment, ion-ion recombination, ion-electron recombination, etc. We also solve the Euler equations of gas dynamics to investigate the effect of the streamer discharges on the neural gas and vice versa. The Euler equations are coupled with the discharge model by a detailed energy transfer model which consists of a fast energy release term and a slow energy release term. In [1], it was observed that the voltage repetition frequency affects whether subsequent streamers follow the path of the old streamers, continue extending from the initial streamer tip or take a completely new path. We try to observe a similar phenomenon in our simulations and try to explain it using the detailed plasma chemistry. Furthermore, we try to study the time scales at which the neutral gas heating starts affecting the streamer dynamics.

[1] Li, Y., Van Veldhuizen, E.M., Zhang, G.J., Ebert, U. and Nijdam, S., 2018. Positive double-pulse streamers: how pulse-to-pulse delay influences initiation and propagation of subsequent discharges. Plasma Sources Science and Technology, 27(12), p.125003.