Modeling of ac dielectric barrier discharge

The qualitative electrodynamic field of the dielectric barrier discharge in air is studied by a three-component, drift-diffusion plasma model including the Poisson equation of plasmadynamics. The critical media interface boundary conditions independent of the detailed mechanisms of surface absorption, diffusion, recombination, and charge accumulation on electrode or dielectrics are developed from the theory of electromagnetics. The computational simulation duplicates the self-limiting feature of dielectric barrier discharge for preventing corona-to-spark transition, and the numerical results of the breakdown voltage are compared very well with data. According to the present modeling, the periodic electrodynamic force due to charge separation over the electrodes also exerts on alternative directions from the exposed to encapsulated electrodes over a complete ac cycle as experimental observations.