Discharge Study of Argon DC Arc Jet Assisted by DBD Plasma for Metal Surface Treatment

An argon dc arc jet assisted by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma was studied for discharge interaction between two plasmas and metal of plasma surface treatment at atmospheric pressure. While operating conditions of the dc arc jet were retained, DBD plasma was operated by changing the applied DBD voltage amplitudes (V_DBD) between 6 and 12 kV_pp to investigate the effect of DBD plasma addition to the dc arc jet on the changes of discharge structure and copper surface energy. By igniting the dc arc jet with DBD plasma, a glow plasma column is formed between the dc arc jet tail and the upper region of the DBD reactor, which transfers electrons and ions provided by the dc arc jet. From the correlation between maximum charge quantity (Q_max) and applied DBD voltage amplitude, the degree of activation of DBD plasma corresponding to the luminescent intensity is proportional to the Q_max. DBD plasma with the dc arc jet has the maximum of Q_max value at V_DBD = 10 kV_pp, then the dc arc jet assisted by DBD plasma becomes the most active. Based on the discharge property investigation, copper surface energy is effectively increased up to 127% at 10 kV_pp using the dc arc jet assisted by DBD plasma, compared with using the dc arc jet alone.