On peak current in atmospheric pulse-modulated microwave discharges by the PIC-MCC model

Pulse modulation provides a new way to tailor the electron density,electron energy and gas temperature in atmospheric radio-frequency (rf) discharges.In this paper,by increasing the rf frequency to several hundreds of MHz,or even much higher to the range of GHz,a very strong peak current in the first period (PCFP) with much larger electron energy can be formed during cthe power-on phase,which is not observed in the common pulse modulation discharges at a rf frequency of 13.56 MHz.The PIC-MCC model is explored to unveil the generation mechanism of PCFP,and based on the simulation data a larger voltage increasing rate over a quarter of a period and the distribution of electron density just before the power-on phase are believed to play key roles;the PCFP is usually produced in the rnicroplasma regime driven by the pulsed power supply.The effects of duty cycle and pulse modulation frequency on the evolution of PCFP are also discussed from the computational data.Therefore,the duty cycle and pulse modulation frequency can be used to optimize the generation of PCFP and high-energy electrons.     

Operation Mode on Pulse Modulation in Atmospheric Radio Frequency Glow Discharges

The discharge operation regime of pulse modulated atmospheric radio frequency(RF) glow discharge in helium is investigated on the duty cycle and frequency of modulation pulses.The characteristics of radio frequency discharge burst in terms of breakdown voltage, alpha(α)-gamma(γ) mode transition voltage and current are demonstrated by the discharge current voltage characteristics. The minimum breakdown voltage of RF discharge burst was obtained at the duty cycle of 20% and frequency of 400 k Hz, respectively. The α-γ mode transition of RF discharge burst occurs at higher voltage and current by reducing the duty cycle and elevating the modulation frequency before the RF discharge burst evolving into the ignition phase, in which the RF discharge burst can operate stably in the γ mode. It proposes that the intensity and stability of RF discharge burst can be improved by manipulating the duty cycle and modulation frequency in pulse modulated atmospheric RF glow discharge.     

Optimized analysis of ionospheric amplitude modulated heating parameters for excitation of very/extremely low frequency radiations

It is now well known that amplitude modulated (AM) high frequency (HF) radio wave transmissions into the ionosphere can be used to generate very/extremely low frequency (VLF/ ELF) radio waves using the so-called ‘electrojet antenna’. Duty cycle and heating frequency are analyzed and discussed with the lower-ionosphere modulated heating model, so as to improve the radiation efficiency of VLF/ELF waves in AM ionospheric heating experiments. Based on numerical simulation, the ranges of parametric selectivity in optimal duty cycle and heating frequency ( fHF) are derived. The International Reference Ionosphere 2015 (IRI-2015) model and two-parameter model are used to predict background electron density profiles, and optimized ranges of duty cycle for different density profiles are analyzed and compared. The influences of wave polarizations on optimal duty cycle are also discussed. It is shown that intensity of the VLF/ELF equivalent radiation source (M) firstly rises and then falls with the increase of duty cycle. When using the IRI model, M peaks at a duty cycle of 50%, optimally ranging from 40% −70%. For the two-parameter model case, an optimal duty cycle is 40% and the optimized ranges vary from 30%−60%. Heating with an X-mode polarization is more efficient than with the O-mode case in VLF/ELF wave generation. Nevertheless, an optimal duty cycle is almost independent of HF wave polarizations. To obtain better VLF/ELF generation, optional fHF may be 0.8−0.9 times of foE for the O-mode heating and 0.75−0.85 times for the X-mode polarization case. Finally, the variations of these two parameters in different latitudes are discussed.     

Experimental Study of the Unsteady Actuation Effect on Induced Flow Characteristics in DBD Plasma Actuators

The main aim of this paper is to investigate unsteady actuation effects on the operation of dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) plasma actuators and to study induced flow characteristics of steady and unsteady actuators in quiescent air.The parameters affecting the operation of unsteady plasma actuators were experimentally measured and compared with the ones for steady actuators.The effects of excitation frequency and duty cycle on the induced flow pattern properties were studied by means of hot-wire anemometers,and the smoke visualization method was also used.It was observed that the current and the mean induced velocity linearly increase with increasing duty cycle while they are not sensitive to excitation frequency.Furthermore,with increasing excitation frequency,the magnitude of vortices shedding from the actuator decreases while their frequency increases.Nevertheless,when the excitation frequency grows beyond a certain level,the induced flow downstream of the actuator behaves as a steady flow.However,the results for steady actuators show that by increasing the applied voltage and carrier frequency,the velocity of the induced flow first increases and then decreases with actuator saturation and the onset of the emission of streaky glow discharge.     

Ionization process and distinctive characteristic of atmospheric pressure cold plasma jet driven resonantly by microwave pulses

In the present study, a coaxial transmission line resonator is constructed, which is always capable of generating cold microwave plasma jet plumes in ambient air in spite of using argon, nitrogen, or even air, respectively. Although the different kinds of working gas induce the different discharge performance, their ionization processes all indicate that the ionization enhancement has taken place twice in each pulsed periods, and the electron densities measured by the method of microwave Rayleigh scattering are higher than the amplitude order of 10¹⁸ m⁻³. The tail region of plasma jets all contain a large number of active particles, like NO, O, emitted photons, etc, but without O3. The formation mechanism and the distinctive characteristics are attributed to the resonance excitation of the locally enhanced electric fields, the ionization wave propulsion, and the temporal and spatial distribution of different particles in the pulsed microwave plasma jets. The parameters of plasma jet could be modulated by adjusting microwave power, modulation pulse parameters (modulation frequency and duty ratio), gas type and its flow rate, according to the requirements of application scenarios.     

Effect of pulse parameter on preparation of W coating on V alloy

The tungsten coatings were prepared on vanadium alloy substrate by pulse electroplating in Na₂WO₄–WO₃ molten salt. A series of tungsten coatings with compact and smooth morphologies were successfully obtained under various conditions. Orthogonal experimental design method was used to analysis the influence degree of current density, duty cycle and period on tungsten grain size, coatings thickness and current efficiency. The results demonstrated that current density was the most important factor influencing tungsten grain size and tungsten coatings thickness, which all had a positive correlation with current density. The pulse duty was the most important factor influencing current efficiency; the result also showed a positive correlation between current efficiency and pulse duty factor.     

Effect of power parameters on micro-discharge induced by corona discharge

This research mainly describes the generation and diagnosis of plasma using a wire-plate discharge device driven by different power supplies, aimed at investigating the effect of driving source parameters on micro-discharge induced by a corona. The influence of parameters such as waveform, duty ratio and bias voltage on discharge characteristics was explored preliminarily. Experiment results show that the determination of volt-ampere characteristics under different driving source waveforms indicates that the application of square and pulse waveforms shows great advantages over that of sawtooth and sinusoidal waveforms. Similarly, the photo-thermal effects of the system were investigated by comparing the high-voltage electrode temperature and relative emission intensity of N₂ (C³П_u →B³П_g , 0–0, 337 nm), where square and pulse waveforms also achieved better performance. But the pulse waveform had a slight advantage over the square waveform in terms of energy conversion. Further, investigations of the duty ratio and bias voltage applied on the pulse waveform were conducted, and the results indicate that the duty ratio could effectively improve the discharge power and thermal effect to a certain extent; however, the application of bias voltage on the pulse signal had little influence on the discharge power and thermal effect.     

Irradiation creep in transient irradiation environments

Creep in a transient irradiation environment is examined theoretically. Pulsing the irradiation flux can enhance the predicted climb-glide creep rate. The enhancement is due to cyclic transients in the point defect fluxes which are shown to be a function of pulse duty cycle, pulse frequency and temperature. The pulsed mechanism is only effective if the climb barrier height is of the order of a nanometer or less. Furthermore, the enhanced creep rate is expected to have a weak stress dependence. The SIPA creep rate, on the other hand, is reduced with pulsing because pulsing reduces the time-averaged interstitial flux as compared with a continuous irradiation having the same time-averaged damage rate. A final consideration in the present analysis is that of discontinuously stepping the irradiation temperature to induce a transient-enhanced climb-glide creep rate.     

Influence of high-voltage pulse parameters on the propagation of a plasma synthetic jet

In this work, a typical pin-to-pin plasma synthetic jet in static air is excited by a pulsed DC power supply. The influences of the pulse rising time, the amplitude and the repetition frequency of the pulse voltage on the jet flow have been investigated. First, using a high-speed Schlieren imaging technique, the induced shock waves and the fast jet flow generated by the plasma synthetic jet are characterized. With a deposited energy of 44 mJ per pulse, the velocity of the shock wave and the maximum velocity of the jet flow reach 320 m s⁻¹ and 100 m s⁻¹, respectively. Second, when the applied voltage increases from 12.8 kV to 16 kV, the maximum jet velocity increases from 66 m s⁻¹ to 93 m s⁻¹. On the other hand, as the pulse rising time varies from 50 ns to 500 ns, or the pulse repetition frequency increases from 5 Hz to 40 Hz, the jet velocity induced by the plasma synthetic jet is weakly dependent. In addition, a comparative study of the plasma synthetic jets using three commercial pulsed power supplies (XJ-15, NPG- 18, and PG-30) is implemented. It reveals that the maximum jet velocity of 120 m s⁻¹ is obtained in the case of PG-30, with the longest pulse rising time and the lowest breakdown voltage, while the maximum velocity of 33 m s⁻¹ is detected in the case of NPG-18, even though it has the shortest pulse rising time and the highest breakdown voltage.     

Hybrid Simulation of Duty Cycle Influences on Pulse Modulated RF SiH4/Ar Discharge

A one-dimensional fluid/Monte-Carlo(MC)hybrid model is developed to describe capacitively coupled SiH_4/Ar discharge,in which the lower electrode is applied by a RF source and pulse modulated by a square-wave,to investigate the modulation effects of the pulse duty cycle on the discharge mechanism.An electron Monte Carlo simulation is used to calculate the electron energy distribution as a function of position and time phase.Rate coefficients in chemical reactions can then be obtained and transferred to the fluid model for the calculation of electron temperature and densities of different species,such as electrons,ions,and radicals.The simulation results show that,the electron energy distribution f(ε)is modulated evidently within a pulse cycle,with its tail extending to higher energies during the power-on period,while shrinking back promptly in the afterglow period.Thus,the rate coefficients could be controlled during the discharge,resulting in modulation of the species composition on the substrate compared with continuous excitation.Meanwhile,more negative ions,like Si H_3~-and Si H_2~-,may escape to the electrodes owing to the collapse of ambipolar electric fields,which is beneficial to films deposition.Pulse modulation is thus expected to provide additional methods to customize the plasma densities and components.     

Turbulent drag reduction by spanwise slot blowing pulsed plasma actuation

This work studies the turbulent drag reduction (TDR) effect of a flat plate model using a spanwise slot blowing pulsed plasma actuator (SBP-PA). Wind tunnel experiments are carried out under a Reynolds number of 1.445 × 104. Using a hot-wire anemometer and an electrical data acquisition system, the influences of millisecond pulsed plasma actuation with different burst frequencies and duty cycles on the microscale coherent structures near the wall of the turbulent boundary layer (TBL) are studied. The experimental results show that the SBP-PA can effectively reduce the frictional drag of the TBL. When the duty cycle exceeds 30%, the TDR rate is greater than 11%, and the optimal drag reduction rate of 13.69% is obtained at a duty cycle of 50%. Furthermore, optimizing the electrical parameters reveals that increasing the burst frequency significantly reduces the velocity distribution in the logarithmic region of the TBL. When the normalized burst frequency reaches f+ = 2πfpd/U∞ = 7.196, the optimal TDR effectiveness is 16.97%, indicating a resonance phenomenon between the pulsed plasma actuation and the microscale coherent structures near the wall. Therefore, reasonably selecting the electrical parameters of the plasma actuator is expected to significantly improve the TDR effect.     

Effect of DBD plasma excitation characteristics on turbulent separation over a hump model

In this paper, the effect of dielectric-barrier discharge plasma excitation characteristics on turbulent boundary layer separation over a hump is investigated using computational fluid dynamics. Four different turbulence models were used for verification. The Reynolds stress model showed the best agreement with the experimental data, in general. Based on the verification and validation, the effect of duty cycle and excitation frequency on the turbulent flow separation were investigated. The results showed that the pulsed plasma excitation could effectively suppress the flow separation by mixing augmentation. With increasing duty cycle and excitation frequency, the flow separation first increased, then decreased again. The optimal duty cycle was 0.75 and the optimal excitation frequency was 50 Hz.     

核信号发生器设计与实现

根据西南科技大学核科学技术实验中心核电子学实验室需要,本着可靠、简单、实用的原则,设计了一款核信号发生器。核信号发生器主要由两部分组成:脉冲信号发生器、滤波成形电路。结合核信号的数学描述,给出其理论实现方法,先产生一组方波信号,再对其进行滤波。测试结果如下:下降升时间,50μs-950μs;频率范围,28 Hz～4.6 kHz;幅度,1.5 V～4.9 V;正极性占空比,50%-78%。从测试结果看,基本满足需求,同时为下一代复杂核信号发生器设计奠定基础。     

Dynamics of plasma bullets by nanosecond pulsed micro-hollow cathode discharge within air

In this paper, the air plasma jet produced by micro-hollow cathode discharge(MHCD) is investigated. The discharge is powered by a positive nanosecond pulse high voltage supply. The waveforms of the discharge, the images of the jet, the evolution of the plasma bullet and the reactive species are obtained to analyze the characteristics of the MHCD plasma jet. It is found that the length of the plasma jet is almost proportional to the air flow rate of 2–6 slm. Two plasma bullets appear one after another during a single period of the voltage waveform, and both of the two plasma bullets are formed during the positive pulse voltage off. The propagation velocity of the two plasma bullets is on the order of several hundred m/s, which is approximate to that of the air flow. These results indicate that the gas flow has an important influence on the formation of this MHCD plasma jet.     

Numerical study of atmospheric-pressure argon plasma jet propagating into ambient nitrogen

A 2D axial symmetry fluid model is applied to study the features of an atmospheric-pressure argon (Ar) plasma jet propagating into ambient nitrogen (N₂) driven by a pulsed voltage, emphasizing the influence of gas velocity on the dynamic characteristics of the jet. The results show that the Ar jet exhibits a cylindrical-shaped channel and the jet channel gradually shrinks with the increase in propagation length. The jet propagation velocity varies with time. Inside the dielectric tube, the plasma jet accelerates propagation and reaches its maximum value near the nozzle. Exiting the tube, its velocity quickly decreases and when approaching the metal plane, the decrease in jet velocity slows down. The increase in gas speed results in the variation of jet spatial distribution. The electron density presents a solid structure at lower gas flow speeds, whereas an annular structure can be observed under the higher gas flow velocity in the ionization head. The jet length increases with the flow velocity. However, when the flow velocity exceeds a critical value, the increase in the rate of the plasma jet length slows down. In addition, the gas velocity effect on the generation and transport of the reactive particles is also studied and discussed.     

压水堆主泵飞轮周围间隙流中泰勒涡传热特性的数值研究

反应堆冷却剂主泵飞轮周围的间隙空间充满流体。飞轮按额定工况速度旋转时,间隙内流体作周向剪切流动的同时产生强烈的湍流泰勒涡二次流动,改变了飞轮间隙流的传热特性。本文采用不同的湍流模型对湍流泰勒涡进行了模拟,雷诺应力模型的模拟结果与现存实验结果最为接近。数值模拟显示,主泵飞轮圆柱面间隙中充满排列规则的周期泰勒涡对,飞轮端面间隙中出现覆盖全端面的扁环形涡胞。飞轮圆柱表面的当地热流密度和努塞尔数与泰勒涡一样呈明显的周期性变化规律。圆柱面泰勒涡对和端面涡胞增强了飞轮区域的传热能力,对飞轮和周围承力部件的温度分布产生重要影响。     

Optimum Duty Cycle of Unsteady Plasma Aerodynamic Actuation for NACA0015 Airfoil Stall Separation Control

Unsteady dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) plasma aerodynamic actuation technology is employed to suppress airfoil stall separation and the technical parameters are explored with wind tunnel experiments on an NACA0015 airfoil by measuring the surface pressure distribution of the airfoil.The performance of the DBD aerodynamic actuation for airfoil stall separation suppression is evaluated under DBD voltages from 2000 V to 4000 V and the duty cycles varied in the range of 0.1 to 1.0.It is found that higher lift coefficients and lower threshold voltages are achieved under the unsteady DBD aerodynamic actuation with the duty cycles less than 0.5as compared to that of the steady plasma actuation at the same free-stream speeds and attack angles,indicating a better flow control performance.By comparing the lift coefficients and the threshold voltages,an optimum duty cycle is determined as 0.25 by which the maximum lift coefficient and the minimum threshold voltage are obtained at the same free-stream speed and attack angle.The non-uniform DBD discharge with stronger discharge in the positive half cycle due to electrons deposition on the dielectric slabs and the suppression of opposite momentum transfer due to the intermittent discharge with cutoff of the negative half cycle are responsible for the observed optimum duty cycle.     

Investigation of the Flow Structure on a Flat Plate Induced by Unsteady Plasma Actuation with DNS Methods

An investigation into the flow characteristic on a flat plate induced by an unsteady plasma was conducted with the methods of direct numerical simulations(DNS).A simplified model of dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) plasma was applied and its parameters were calibrated with the experimental results.In the simulations,effects of the actuation frequency on the flow were examined.The instantaneous flow parameters were also drawn to serve as a detailed study on the behavior when the plasma actuator was applied to the flow.The result shows that induced by the unsteady actuation,a series of vortex pairs which showed dipole formation and periodicity distribution were formed in the boundary layer.The production of these vortex pairs indicated a strong energy exchange between the main flow and the boundary layer.They moved downstream under the action of the free stream and decayed under the influence of the fluid viscosity.The distance of the neighboring vortices was found to be determined by the actuation frequency.Interaction of the neighboring vortices would be ignored when the actuation frequency was too small to make a difference.     

Experiment and Analysis on the Treatment of Gaseous Benzene Using Pulsed Corona Discharge Plasma

An experiment and analysis on removal of gaseous benzene by pulse corona inducedplasma is presented in this article. Important parameters effecting removal efficiency have been investigated, such as pulse peak voltage, pulse frequency, gas inlet concentration, gas flow rate and reactor temperature. The result shows that the removal efficiency increases with the increase in pulse peak voltage, pulse frequency and reactor temperature, but decreases in the rise of gas inlet concentration and gas flow rate. On the condition of Vp = 36 kV, f = 80 Hz, C = 1440 mg/m^3 and Q = 640 ml/min, the largest removal efficiency is 98%. Finally, the reacted products are qualitatively analysed and the reaction processes are deduced in combination with plasma-chemistry theory.     

气泡破裂及其诱发射流液滴释放过程的实验研究

本文基于实验方法,通过高速摄像的方法捕捉不同直径下的气泡破裂过程及射流液滴的释放过程,获得了气泡破裂后气泡空腔的演变过程,捕捉了射流液滴的速度,探究了气泡直径和气泡表面寿命对射流液滴释放过程的影响规律。实验结果表明,气泡表面寿命对气泡破裂产生射流液滴的过程有着重要影响。随气泡表面寿命的增加,破裂气泡产生的射流液滴的速度也随之增加。当气泡直径较小时,气泡表面寿命呈现Rayleigh分布的特征,射流液滴的释放概率也较高。随气泡直径的增加,气泡表面寿命逐渐转变为指数衰减分布的特征,射流液滴的释放概率也随之下降。基于现有实验数据给出了一个精度更高的射流液滴速度与气泡直径关系式。