Charaterization of magnetically stabilized gliding arc for study of flame ignition and stabilization

Summary form only given. The best plasma discharge system for combustion applications should generate non-equilibrium plasma with high concentration of active species and intermediate temperatures, high enough to support chain propagation reaction. The non-equilibrium gliding arc (GA) aptly suits this application. However, to study and characterize GA plasma enhancement process we need to stabilize the discharge. A novel, non-equilibrium rotating gliding arc plasma disc reactor has been developed to study possibility of flame speed increase, flammability limit extension for hydrocarbon fuel and oxidizer mixture. The motivation for this work is to try and develop a more fundamental understanding of the interaction of non-equilibrium plasma with flames. To stabilize the discharge we use the well-known principle of Lorentz force, herein the plasma column behaves like a current carrying conductor in a transverse magnetic field and thereby experiences a force in the direction perpendicular to the imaginary vector plane formed by current and magnetic field. The current paper will present optical emission spectroscopy results that were obtained to characterize rotational and vibrational temperatures in plasma by well-known theoretical techniques using OH and N₂ spectra. We will present measurements for plasma voltages and currents obtained with corresponding estimations of plasma column diameters (assuming cylindrical structure of discharge), current densities (asserts GA´s glow-like behavior), estimations of average electron energy and electron density, ignition enhancement results, rotational frequencies and variation in these plasma parameters with different gases and electrode materials