An air spark glow phase model

Summary form only given, as follows. A 0-dimensional kinetic model is developed for the glow phase of a spark gap in air. The model includes heavy-heavy collisions leading to thermal ionization, and electron collision processes. Rates for the latter are calculated by a Boltzmann analysis and from empirical measurements. These include attachment and ionization, excitation/ionization, and dissociated/ionization; detachment was found to be necessary to match experimental closing times. With only those processes, the model predicts closing times well over a wide range above and below the DC breakdown voltage