Fluid model for a partially packed dielectric barrier discharge plasma reactor

In this work, a two-dimensional numerical fluid model is developed for a partially packed dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) in pure helium. Influence of packing on the discharge characteristics is studied by comparing the results of DBD with partial packing with those obtained for DBD with no packing. In the axial partial packing configuration studied in this work, the electric field strength was shown to be enhanced at the top surface of the spherical packing material and at the contact points between the packing and the dielectric layer. For each value of applied potential, DBD with partial packing showed an increase in the number of pulses in the current profile in the positive half cycle of the applied voltage, as compared to DBD with no packing. Addition of partial packing to the plasma-alone DBD also led to an increase in the electron and ion number densities at the moment of breakdown. The time averaged electron energy profiles showed that a much higher range of electron energy can be achieved with the use of partial packing as compared to no packing in a DBD, at the same applied power. The spatially and time averaged values over one voltage cycle also showed an increase in power density and electron energy on inclusion of partial packing in the DBD. For the applied voltage parameters studied in this work, the discharge was found to be consistently homogeneous and showed the characteristics of atmospheric pressure glow discharge.