Measurement of surface charges on the dielectric film based on field mills under the HVDC corona wire

The ion flow field on the ground is one of the significant parameters used to evaluate the electromagnetic environment of high voltage direct current (HVDC) power lines. HVDC lines may cross the greenhouses due to the restricted transmission corridors. Under the condition of ion flow field, the dielectric films on the greenhouses will be charged, and the electric fields in the greenhouses may exceed the limit value. Field mills are widely used to measure the groundlevel direct current electric fields under the HVDC power lines. In this paper, the charge inversion method is applied to calculate the surface charges on the dielectric film according to the measured ground-level electric fields. The advantages of hiding the field mill probes in the ground are studied. The charge inversion algorithm is optimized in order to decrease the impact of measurement errors. Based on the experimental results, the surface charge distribution on a piece of quadrate dielectric film under a HVDC corona wire is studied. The enhanced effect of dielectric film on ground-level electric field is obviously weakened with the increase of film height. Compared with the total electric field strengths, the normal components of film-free electric fields at the corresponding film-placed positions have a higher effect on surface charge accumulation.     

Study on influencing factors of ion current density measurement in corona discharge of HVDC transmission lines

The ground level ion current density produced by corona discharge in high voltage direct current(HVDC) transmission lines can reflect the operation status of the lines, but the distorted electric field at the edge of the Wilson plate seriously affects the measurement results of ion current density. In order to measure the ground level ion current density accurately and directly, a new reduced scale wire-plate experimental device in which the Wilson plate is flush with the grounding plate is designed. The influence of protective annulus width and the height of the Wilson plate from the grounding plate on ground level ion current density are studied. In addition, the differences between the micro-current galvanometer method and the sampling resistance method in the measurement of ion current density are compared. Finally, the ground level ion current density distributions of unipolar and bipolar HVDC transmission lines are measured. The results show that the edge effect of the Wilson plate can be neglected when the width of protective annulus is less than 2 mm, and the ion current density is nonlinear with the height of the Wilson plate from the grounding plate. Moreover, the internal resistance of the digital voltmeter seriously affects the measurement results and it is necessary to correct the results. Finally, at the same applied voltage, the ground level ion current density in the negative conductor region is higher than that in the positive conductor region.     

Decay characters of charges on an insulator surface after different types of discharge

In an insulating system including solid and gas dielectrics,discharge type has a strong impact on charge accumulation at the interface between two dielectrics,and hence charge decay.In order to clarify the influence,a surface charge measurement system was constructed,and three types of discharge,i.e.surface discharge,and low intensity and high intensity coronas,were introduced to cause surface charge accumulation.The decay behavior of surface charges after different types of discharge was obtained at various temperatures.It was found that total surface charges monotonically decreased with time,and the decay rate became larger as temperature increased.However,after a surface discharge or a high intensity corona,surface charge density in the local area appeared to fluctuate during the decay process.Compared with this,the fluctuation of surface charge density was not observed after a low intensity corona.The mechanisms of surface charge accumulation and decay were analysed.Moreover,a microscopic physical model involving charge production,accumulation,and decay was proposed so that the experimental results could be explained.     

Factors Influencing the Electron Yield of Needle-Ring Pulsed Corona Discharge Electron Source for Negative Ion Mobility Spectrometer

A simple negative ion mobility spectrometer （IMS） is designed and used to investi- gate the factors that influence the number and efficiency of electrons generated by the needle-ring pulsed corona discharge electron source. Simulation with Ansoft Maxwell 12 is carried out to analyze the electric field distribution within the IMS, and to offer the basis and foundation for analyzing the measurement results. The measurement results of the quantities of electrons show that when the drift electric field strength and the ring inner diameter rise, both the number of ef- fective electrons and the effective electron rate are increased. When the discharge voltage becomes stronger, the number of effective electrons goes up while the effective electron rate goes down. In light of the simulation results, mechanisms underlying the effects of drift electric field strength, ring inner diameter, and discharge voltage on the effective electron number and effective electron rate are discussed. These will make great sense for designing negative ion mode IMS using the needle-ring pulsed corona discharge as the electron source.     

Study on water treatment effect of dispersion discharge plasma based on flowing water film electrode

To improve the utilization rate of plasma active species,in this study,a closed non-uniform air gap is formed by a flowing water film electrode and a sawtooth insulating dielectric layer to realize the diffuse glow discharge in the atmosphere.Firstly,the electric field distribution characteristics of non-uniform air gap in the sawtooth dielectric layer are studied,and the influence of aspect ratio on the characteristics of diffuse discharge plasma is discussed.Subsequently,the effects of wire mesh,the inclination angle of the dielectric plate,and liquid inlet velocity on the flow characteristics of the water film electrode are analyzed.The results show that the non-uniform electric field distribution formed in the sawtooth groove can effectively inhibit the filamentous discharge,and the 1 mm flowing water film is directly used as the electrode,and high-active plasma is formed directly on the lower surface of the water film.In addition,a plasma flowing water treatment device is built to treat the methyl orange solution and observe its decolorization effect.The experimental results show that after 50 min of treatment,the decolorization rate of the methyl orange solution reaches 96％,which provides a new idea for industrial applications of wastewater treatment.     

The effect of an external electric field on radiation transmission and Compton scattering in plexiglass

The effect of an external electric field on radiation transmission of a plexiglass sample has been studied by using an extremely narrow-collimated-beam transmission method. Also, the photon scattering properties of the charge centers have been determined by changing the charge density distributions of the plexiglass sample with an external electric field having an intensity in the range 0-1000 V/cm. The plexiglass sample was bombarded by 59.5 keV gamma rays emitted from an Am-241 point source. The transmitted and Compton scattered photons were detected by a Si(Li) detector. Appreciable variations were observed in the transmission factors of the plexiglass sample as a function of applied field. The results show that the electrical properties of the plexiglass sample changes with the applied electric field and the gamma ray irradiations although it is a dielectric material. Furthermore, the negatively charged scattering centers are slightly more effective than the positively charged scattering centers in the Compton scattering of gamma rays from an insulator sample, similar to result found for conductor and semiconductors.     

The detailed characteristics of positive corona current pulses in the line-to-plane electrodes

The corona current pulses generated by corona discharge are the sources of the radio interference from transmission lines and the detailed characteristics of the corona current pulses from conductor should be investigated in order to reveal their generation mechanism. In this paper, the line-to-plane electrodes are designed to measure and analyze the characteristics of corona current pulses from positive corona discharges. The influences of inter-electrode gap and line diameters on the detail characteristics of corona current pulses, such as pulse amplitude, rise time, duration time and repetition frequency, are carefully analyzed. The obtained results show that the pulse amplitude and the repetition frequency increase with the diameter of line electrode when the electric fields on the surface of line electrodes are same. With the increase of inter-electrode gap,the pulse amplitude and the repetition frequency first decrease and then turn to be stable, while the rise time first increases and finally turns to be stable. The distributions of electric field and space charges under the line electrodes are calculated, and the influences of inter-electrode gap and line electrode diameter on the experimental results are qualitatively explained.     

Effect of plasma step gradient modification on surface electrical properties of epoxy resin

In this paper, plasma fluorination is combined with plasma silicon deposition to achieve step gradient modification on an epoxy resin surface. The physicochemical characteristics of samples are investigated and the electrical performances measured. The obtained results show that compared with untreated and single treated samples, the samples treated by step gradient modification significantly improve the flashover performance. According to experiment and simulation, the mechanism explanations are summarized as follows. First, it is found that the step gradient conductivity can effectively optimize the electric field distribution of a needle-needle electrode. Then, step gradient modification suppresses the accumulation of surface charge at the triple junction and makes the charge distribution more uniform. Furthermore, it can accelerate the surface dissipation on a high electrical field region and control the dissipation rate on a low electrical field region. All these results can restrain surface discharge and increase the flashover voltage. The step gradient modification method proposed in this paper provides a new idea for improving the surface insulation performance.     

Investigation on the Micro-Discharge Characteristics of Dielectric Barrier Discharge in a Needle-Plate Geometry

In this study, a dielectric barrier discharge device with needle-plate electrodes was used to investigate the characteristics of the micro-discharge in argon at one atmospheric pressure by an optical method. The results show that there are two discharge modes in the dielectric barrier discharge, namely corona mode and filamentary mode. The corona discharge only occurs in the vicinity of the needle tip when the applied voltage is very low. However, the filamentary discharge mode can occur, and micro-discharge bridges the two electrodes when the applied voltage reaches a certain value. The extended area of micro-discharge on the dielectric plate becomes larger with the increase in applied voltage or decrease in gas pressure. The variance of the light emission waveforms is studied as a function of the applied voltage. Results show that very short discharge pulse only appears at the negative half cycle of the applied voltage in the corona discharge mode. However, broad hump (about several microseconds) can be discerned at both the negative half cycle and the positive half cycle for a high voltage in the filamentary mode. Furthermore, the inception voltage decreases and the width of the discharge hump increases with the increase in applied voltage. These experimental phenomena can be explained qualitatively by analyzing the discharge mechanism.     

Research on Nanosecond Pulse Corona Discharge with Cross Magnetic Field Applied

An application of magnetic field to the nanosecond pulse corona discharge is investigated. A cylinder reactor with different corona electrodes is set up for experimental study. A magnetic field with its direction perpendicular to the corona discharge is applied. Different discharge images are taken under single nanosecond pulse with a high sensitive UV-visible light imagine recorder. Experimental results show that with a cross magnetic field the nanosecond corona discharge both generates paths and develops homogeneously in space more than that without the magnetic field. The results may lead to a possibility to apply a cross magnetic field on nanosecond pulse corona discharge for getting higher desulfurization efficiency.     

Research on deposition rate of TiZrV/Pd film by DC magnetron sputtering method

An accelerator storage ring needs clean ultrahigh vacuum.A TiZrV non-evaporable getter (NEG) film deposited on interior walls of the chamber can realize distributed pumping,effective vacuum improvement and reduced longitudinal pressure gradient.But accumulation of pollutants such as N2 and O2 will decrease the adsorption ability of the NEG,leading to a reduction of NEG lifetime.Therefore,an NEG thin film coated with a layer of Pd,which has high diffusion rate and absorption ability for H2,can extend the service life of NEG and improve the pumping rate of H2 as well.In this paper,with argon as discharge gas,a magnetron sputtering method is adopted to prepare TiZrV-Pd films in a long straight pipe.By SEM measurement,deposition rates of TiZrV-Pd films are analyzed under different deposition parameters,such as magnetic field strength,gas flow rate,discharge current,discharge voltage and working pressure.By comparing the experimental results with the simulation results based on Sigmund's theory,the Pd deposition rate C can be estimated by the sputtered depth.     

Exploration of a MgO cathode for improving the intensity of pulsed discharge plasma at atmosphere

With regard to the lower density and energy of electrons in pulsed discharge plasma (PDP) at atmosphere, leading to the lower energy utilization of plasma, we propose a MgO cathode to enhance the plasma intensity according to field emission principle. The MgO cathode is prepared by an electro-depositing MgO film on a stainless steel plate. This way, the positive charges come to the cathode and accumulate on the surface of the MgO film, leading to the enhancement of the electric field intensity between the cathode and MgO film, and result in the strong emission of secondary electrons from the MgO cathode. As a result, the intensity of plasma can be enhanced. Herein, the effect of the MgO cathode on the intensity of PDP is investigated. It was shown that the discharge peak current was improved by 20% compared with that of without the MgO cathode. With increasing the MgO film thickness, discharge intensity, including the peak current, transforming charge and spectrum intensity first increased and then decreased. Higher enhancement of peak current, transforming charge and spectrum intensity were acquired with a higher peak voltage. Compared to a cathode without MgO film, the ozone production is higher with MgO cathode employed. The research proposes a novel approach for improving the intensity of discharge plasma, and also provides a reference for further application of PDP.     

Charge transfer in plasma assisted dry reforming of methane using a nanosecond pulsed packed-bed reactor discharge

This paper is aimed to investigate the effect of packing material on plasma characteristic from the viewpoint of charge transfer process.Both the charge accumulation and release processes in the dielectric barrier discharge reactor and packed-bed reactor were investigated by measuring voltage and current waveforms and taking ICCD images.The packing material was ZrO2 pellets and the reactors were driven by a parameterized nanosecond pulse source.The quantity of transferred charges in the dielectric barrier discharge reactor was enhanced when decreasing pulse rise time or increasing pulse width (within 150 ns),but reduced when the gas gap was packed with pellets.The quantity of accumulated charges in the primary discharge was larger than the quantity of released charges in the secondary dfscharges in the dielectric barrier discharge reactor,but they were almost equal in the packed-bed reactor.It indicates that the discharge behavior has been changed from the view of charge transfer process once the gas gap was packed with pellets,and the ICCD images confirmed it.     

The enhanced aerosol deposition by bipolar corona discharge arrays

The corona discharges provide an efficient way to induce precipitation or eliminate fog by increasing ion density in the open air.In this paper,one bipolar corona discharge array (positive and negative high voltage coupled simultaneously) which can generate high densities of positive and negative ions is developed.The comparison between bipolar corona discharge array and unipolar corona discharge array (positive or negative coupled only) indicates that bipolar corona discharge array can generate ～3 times higher ion density than unipolar corona discharge array.More charged aerosols are produced through collisions between ions and aerosols.The collision rate between aerosols is increased substantially by the attractive forces between positively and negatively charged aerosols.The deposition of aerosols induced by bipolar discharges is 25.7％higher than that of unipolar discharges at the humidity super-saturation condition.Therefore,the bipolar corona discharge system is a new option for the large scale ion sources used for artificial weather modification.     

DBD plasma assisted atomic layer deposition alumina barrier layer on self-degradation polylactic acid film surface

In this work, the plastic of polylatic acid(PLA) film is coated by alumina(Al_2O_3)through dielectric barrier discharge plasma assisted atomic layer deposition(DBD PA-ALD) for the proposal of the barrier property enhancement. The influence of ALD Al_2O_3 thickness on properties of barrier, mechanical, optical and degradation is investigated in detail. It is obtained that the growth rate of Al_2O_3 in DBD PA-ALD is as quick as 0.12 nm/cycle. After coated～40 nm Al_2O_3, the water vapor transmission rate of PLA is reduced by two orders of magnitude.Additionally, it is noticed that the tension strength of the coated film is improved slightly,whereas the light transmission rate is decreased with the increase of Al_2O_3 thickness. The degradation test shows that Al_2O_3 coating almost does not affect the self-degradation rate of PLA film.     

Ion-induced electrostatic charging of ice

We studied electrostatic charging on amorphous ice films induced by the impact of 100 keV Ar⁺ ions at 45° incidence. We derived the positive surface electrostatic potential from the kinetic energy of sputtered molecular ions. Measurements were performed as a function of film thickness, ion flux and accumulated fluence. The main results are (a) films charge up to a saturation value, following an exponential time dependence. (b) The time constant for charging is approximately proportional to the reciprocal of the ion flux. (c) The maximum surface voltage depends on film thickness and ion flux. (d) Charging does not occur for films thinner than the maximum range of projectile. (e) Dielectric breakdown is observed for surface potentials above ∼100 V. We explain the measurements with a model in which charges can drift into the substrate or be trapped temporarily near the ionization range of the projectiles. A charge can be released from the trap by the electric field produced by a nearby charge injected by subsequent projectiles.     

Upgrading the NIFS superconductor test facility for JT-60SA cable-in-conduit conductors

The superconductor test facility at the National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) was upgraded to test cable-in-conduit (CIC) conductors for the JT-60SA equilibrium field (EF) coil. Supercritical helium (SHe) lines were assembled with transfer tubes and a heat exchanger. The CIC conductor was covered with a thermal insulation vessel, filled with gas helium at atmospheric pressure. The temperature of the conductor was varied using a film heater attached to an inlet pipe. Critical current (Ic) and current sharing temperature (Tcs) measurements of the prototype CIC conductor were carried out successfully in the upgraded test facility. During the measurements, the conductor temperature was precisely controlled.     

Characteristic studies on positive and negative streamers of double-sided pulsed surface dielectric barrier discharge

The mechanisms of streamer generation and propagation in double-sided pulsed surface dielectric barrier discharge (SDBD) on both sides have been analyzed and investigated by experiment and numerical simulation. The fully exposed asymmetric SDBD has two discharge processes located on the high voltage electrode (HVE) side and the ground electrode (GE) side. Discharge images of the HVE side and GE side are taken by a digital camera under continuous pulse and ICCD (Intensified Charge Coupled Device) is utilized to diagnose the generation and propagation of streamers in single pulse discharge. In order to understand the physical mechanisms of streamer evolution more deeply, we establish a 2D simulation model and analyze it from the aspects of electron density, ion density, reduced electric field and electron impact ionization source term. The results show that the primary and secondary discharges on the HVE side and the GE side of the double-sided SDBD are composed of positive streamer and negative streamer, respectively. On the HVE side, the accumulation of positive charges on the dielectric surface causes the direction of the electric field to reverse, which is the principal factor for the polarity reversal of the streamer. On the GE side, both the negative charges accumulated on the dielectric surface and the falling voltage are the key factors for the streamer polarity switch.     

Application of DBD and DBCD in SO2 Removal

The dielectric barrier corona discharge(DBCD) in a wire-cylinder configuration and the dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) in a coaxial cylinder configuration are studied. The discharge current in DBD has a higher pulse amplitude than in DBCD. The dissipated power and the gas-gap voltage are calculated by analyzing the measured Lissajous figure. With the increasing applied voltage, the energy utilization factor for SO2 removal increases in DBCD but decreases in DBD because of the difference in their electric field distribution. Experiments of SO2 removal show that in the absence of NH3 the energy utilization factor can reach 31 g/kWh in DBCD and 39 g/kWh in DBD.     

Long-term corona behaviour and performance enhancing mechanism of SiC/epoxy nanocomposite in SF6 gas environment

Surface coating technology is an effective way to solve the interface insulation problem of DC GIS/GIL basin insulators, but the performance of the coating will change greatly, and the insulation strength will be completely lost, after long-term use in the extreme conditions of corona erosion. In this research, the multi-needle-plate electrode platform was constructed to explore the long-term use performance of Si C-doped nanocomposite exposed to corona discharge in SF6gas. Samples with a high S...