A New Method for the Generation of Large Volume Discharges in Water

The production of large volume streamer discharges is essential to the industrial application of such discharge in water. The use of dielectric-coated electrode was found to have a great influence on the initiation of the streamer discharge as well as the formation of streamer channels. In this paper, a sphere-ring electrode configuration, in which the sphere was coated with a kind of silicon rubber, was put forward to generate multiple radial streamer discharges in tap water by applying a pulse voltage. Different from the previous methods which need very high electric strength and short pulse duration, this kind of electrode configuration can generate large volume streamer discharges in water easily at lower voltage amplitude. The effect of the pulse parameters, such as pulse amplitude and pulsewidth, on the streamer-channel length has been investigated. The influence mechanism of the coated dielectric on the streamer initiation and propagation is discussed in this paper.