Effect of Working Gas and Applied Voltage on the Estimation of Power and Electron Density in Gliding Arc Discharge (GAD) System

Abstract: Atmospheric pressure gliding arc plasma is generated by a 50 Hz (0-13 kV) AC power supply. The electrical properties of the produced plasma are investigated with the help of an oscilloscope. In this work, the relationship between applied voltage, breakdown voltage, and discharge current is studied for air, argon, oxygen, and nitrogen gases. Similarly, the effect of the nature of gases on breakdown voltage and discharge current is studied. The power consumed by the discharge for different gases is obtained by current-voltage characteristics. It is found that among air, nitrogen, argon, and oxygen, argon consumes minimum and nitrogen consumes maximum power. Specifically, at the maximum applied voltage of 10.2 kV, oxygen and nitrogen consume approximately 56-57% more power than argon. Electron density, one of the most essential plasma parameters, is evaluated and compared using an electrical approach for several fading gases. The electron density is found to be increasing with the increase in applied voltage, and the value of electron density is found to be larger in argon discharge. Keywords: Gliding arc discharge, I–V characteristics, Power consumption, Discharge voltage, Electron density.