Electrical equivalent circuit and modeling of a pulsed air corona discharge

Abstract In this paper, we present an equivalent circuit model of a multi filamentary corona discharge powered by pulsed positive voltage in the case of humid air at atmospheric pressure. The elements of the equivalent circuit are obtained by an optimization method of parameter identification, applying the Recursive Least Square algorithm with a Variable Forgetting factor (RLS-VF), based on the measured currents and voltages of the discharge. A comparison between the measured discharge current and the calculated current shows a good agreement. The obtained time varying discharge resistance is between about 5–300 mΩ and the capacitance between about 0.01 pF to 1 pF. Then we used the equivalent circuit components to calculate the energy efficiency versus the applied voltage that varies at its maximum under the present experimental conditions from about 20% to 50%.