Negative Streamer in Nitrogen
Application ID: 44551
Streamers are transient filamentary electric discharges that can develop in a nonconducting background in the presence of an intense electric field. These discharges can attain high electron number density and consequently a high concentration of chemical active species that are relevant for numerous applications. Industrial applications include ozone production, pollution control, and surface processing.
The propagation of streamers is driven by very nonlinear dynamics that involve very steep density gradients and high space charge density distributed in very thin layers. This tutorial model presents a study of a negative streamer in atmospheric pressure nitrogen in a constant electric field of -100 kV/cm. The model is one-dimensional and describes the transient behavior of an initial electron seed from electron growth in an unperturbed electric field to streamer propagation.
This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products:
however, additional products may be required to completely define and model it. Furthermore, this example may also be defined and modeled using components from the following product combinations:
The combination of COMSOL® products required to model your application depends on several factors and may include boundary conditions, material properties, physics interfaces, and part libraries. Particular functionality may be common to several products. To determine the right combination of products for your modeling needs, review the Tabella delle Funzionalità and make use of a free evaluation license. The COMSOL Sales and Support teams are available for answering any questions you may have regarding this.