Investigation of the Effect of High Frequency and Ambient Gas on Ignition and Damping of Barrier Discharge

Determining the ignition and damping voltage values of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) at various frequencies and in different gas ambients is important regarding lighting techniques and various industrial applications. DBDs can be operated with sinusoidal or square-wave currents between line frequency and microwave frequencies or with special pulsed waveforms. For large-scale industrial applications, power supplies operating between 500 Hz and 500 kHz are preferred. In this study, an experimental application was carried out to determine the current and voltage parameters in the damping and ignition of DBD at various frequencies and in different gas ambients. Within the scope of the study, the supply voltage was gradually applied at certain frequencies to the cylindrical plane electrode system placed in a specially designed closed and vacuumable reactor, these experiments were also repeated in various gas environments, and the voltage-current (V–I) measurements of the system were made. According to the results, it was observed that the frequency and gas type had a significant effect on the discharge damping and ignition voltages and that increasing the frequency significantly facilitated the ignition of the DBD. Similarly, the conductivity of the ambient gas significantly reduced the ignition voltage level of the DBD.