Effect of magnetic field, airflow or combination of airflow with magnetic field on hollow needle-to-cylinder discharge regimes

For the hollow needle-to-cylinder dc discharge in air at atmospheric pressure we studied the effect of magnetic field, airflow and combination of airflow with magnetic field on transitions between various discharge regimes. We showed that application of magnetic field on the discharge in static air does not substantially change the discharge characteristics. In contrast with this finding, application of airflow through the needle increases the range of current of the discharge pulseless regime in comparison with the discharge in static air. A similar but more significant effect was obtained for combination of the airflow and magnetic field on the discharge. It was also shown that for the discharge in static air, discharge in static air in magnetic field, discharge with airflow and discharge in magnetic field with airflow for the filamentary streamer regime, the duration of the discharge voltage pulses decreases with increasing current. Using the combination of the airflow and magnetic field we were therefore able to stabilize the discharge and to increase the volume of the discharge chamber occupied by the non-equilibrium plasma.