Theoretical modeling of pulse discharge cycle in dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator

Simple models based on two-dimensional simulations are proposed to estimate intervals of periodically observed current pulses with a positive-going voltage in a dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator. There are two distinct peaks in one streamer discharge; one is related to the formation of an ion cloud and the other is related to a filamentary discharge that is identified as a streamer. Simulation results show that the intervals of the current pulses depend on the slope of the applied voltage. For the ion-cloud formation phase, we model the time evolution of electron number density at the exposed electrode with ionization frequency. For the ion-cloud expansion phase, a positive ion cylinder model is proposed to estimate the electric field generated by surface charge on the dielectric. These models well reproduce the discharge intervals obtained in the numerical simulations.