Macroscopic parameterization of positive streamer heads in air

Abstract

The growth of streamers is determined at their heads, for individual streamers as well as in collective phenomena, such as streamer trees or coronas or streamer bursts ahead of lighting leaders. Some properties of the streamer heads, such as velocity v and radius R now can be measured quite well, but this is very challenging for others such as the maximal electric field, the charge content at the streamer head and the degree of chemical excitation and ionization in the streamer channel. Here we develop, test and evaluate a macroscopic approximation for positive streamer heads in air that relates macroscopic streamer head properties to each other. In particular, we find that velocity v, radius R and background field E_bg determine the complete profile of streamer heads with photoionization, if they propagate steadily. We also revisit Naidis' approximate relation between v, R and the maximal field E_max. The approximate head model consists of three first-order ordinary differential equations along the streamer axis. It is derived from the classical fluid model for streamer discharges by assuming axisymmetry, steady streamer propagation (with constant velocity and shape), and a (semi-)spherical shape of the charge layer. The model shows good agreement with solutions of the classical fluid model, even when it is applied to accelerating streamers. Therefore the model can be used for evaluations of experiments, like measurements of the maximal electric field, and it could be a valuable tool in constructing reduced models for the collective dynamics of many streamer discharges.