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Simulation of runaway electron inception and breakdown in nanosecond pulse gas discharges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2015

Cheng Zhang ,
Jianwei Gu ,
Ruexue Wang ,
Hao Ma ,
Ping Yan  and
Tao Shao
Cheng Zhang
Affiliation:
Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China Key Laboratory of Power Electronics and Electric Drive, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Jianwei Gu
Affiliation:
Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Ruexue Wang
Affiliation:
Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China Key Laboratory of Power Electronics and Electric Drive, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Hao Ma
Affiliation:
Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Ping Yan
Affiliation:
Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China Key Laboratory of Power Electronics and Electric Drive, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Tao Shao*
Affiliation:
Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China Key Laboratory of Power Electronics and Electric Drive, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
*
Address correspondence and reprint request to: Tao Shao, Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 2703, 100190 Beijing, China. E-mail: st@mail.iee.ac.cn
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Abstract

Nanosecond pulse discharges can provide high reduced electric field for exciting high-energy electrons, and the ultrafast rising time of the applied pulse can effectively suppress the generation of spark streamer and produce homogeneous discharges preionized by runaway electrons in atmospheric-pressure air. In this paper, the electrostatic field in a tube-plate electrodes gap is calculated using a calculation software. Furthermore, a simple physical model of nanosecond pulse discharges is established to investigate the behavior of the runaway electrons during the nanosecond pulse discharges with a rise time of 1.6 ns and a full-width at half-maximum of 3–5 ns in air. The physical model is coded by a numerical software, and then the runaway electrons and electron avalanche are investigated under different conditions. The simulated results show that the applied voltage, voltage polarity, and gas pressure can significantly affect the formation of the avalanche and the behavior of the runaway electrons. The inception time of runaway breakdown decreases when the applied voltage increases. In addition, the threshold voltage of runaway breakdown has a minimum value (10 kPa) with the variation of gas pressure.

PACS: 52.80.-s

Keywords

Gas dischargeInception timeNanosecond pulseNumerical simulationRunaway electron
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 43 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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