Geometrical effects of the discharge system on the corona discharge and chemically active species generated in wire-cylinder and wire-plate reactors

Time-dependent one- and two-dimensional numerical models are developed to analyze the influence of the design and the operating conditions on streamer propagation and active-species generation in wire-cylinder and wire-plate reactors. One-dimensional calculations for the corona model of a wire-cylinder reactor showed that fixed ratios of the wire to the cylinder radii, a/b, and the applied voltage to the cylinder radius, V-a/b, were the key design parameters for controlling the discharge characteristics. In addition, shape of pulse voltage externally applied to the electrodes is newly suggested for generating a new-uniform electric field over the entire discharge region. Two-dimensional calculations for a wire-plate reactor found that the wire-to-wire spacing, c, along the parallel-plate direction should be at least twice the wire-to-plate distance, d, to produce non-equilibrium plasmas effectively for generating a, large volume of resultant chemically active species (c/d greater than or equal to 2).