Study on discharge characteristics of low-temperature sub-atmospheric pressure under steep change rate voltage

Abstract Aiming at the gas discharge problem in electric aircraft, this work studies the gas discharge characteristics at low-temperature sub-atmospheric pressure. A gas discharge shooting platform was built, and the discharge process was photographed by intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD). A two-dimensional axisymmetric model of needle-plate electrode gas discharge was established, and three sets of Helmholtz equations were used to solve the photoionization. The results show that under the same voltage, the electric field intensity in the discharge process increases first, then decreases and finally increases again. The discharge speed increases with the increase of altitude, and the electron density in the streamer decreases with the increase of altitude. The development speed of the streamer in the middle stage is higher than that in the early stage, and the speed increases more obviously with the increase of altitude. The development speed of the streamer in the later stage is lower than that in the middle stage, but with the increase of altitude, the development speed of the streamer in the later stage is higher than that in the middle stage.