Corona discharges in sub-millimeter electrode gaps

Atmospheric pressure wire-to-plane positive corona discharges have been explored experimentally in electrode gaps from 0.3 mm to 5 mm. Reductions in the gap distance and wire diameter resulted in a significant increase in discharge currents and lowered onset potentials, and the current–voltage characteristics followed the typical Townsend’s relationship. The experimentally observed onset potentials were higher than Peek’s prediction although they still showed the same logarithmic behavior with gap distance. Additionally, a theoretical relationship for the current–voltage discharge in a wire-to-plane configuration was derived to obtain the dependence on the geometric parameters, and it compared well with the experimental results.