Plasma Discharge Process in a Pulsed Diaphragm Discharge System

As one of the most important steps in wastewater treatment, limited study on plasma discharge process is a key challenge in the development of plasma applications. In this study, we focus on the plasma discharge process of a pulsed diaphragm discharge system. According to the analysis, the pulsed diaphragm discharge proceeds in seven stages： （1） Joule heating and heat exchange stage; （2） nucleated site formation; （3） plasma generation （initiation of the breakdown stage）; （4） avalanche growth and plasma expansion; （5） plasma contraction; （6） termination of the plasma discharge; and （7） heat exchange stage. From this analysis, a critical voltage criterion for breakdown is obtained. We anticipate this finding will provide guidance for a better application of plasma discharges, especially diaphragm plasma discharges.     

Experimental Study of Current Discharge Behavior and Hard X-ray Anisotropy by APF Plasma Focus Device

Amirkabir (APF) is a new Mather-type plasma focus device (16 kV, 36 μf, and 115 nH). In this work we present some experimental results as variation of discharge current signal respect to applied voltage at the optimum pressure, focusing time of plasma versus gas pressure, and variations of current discharge with different insulator sleeve dimensions. As we prospected optimum pressure tending to increase as we tried to higher voltage levels. The time taken by the current sheath to lift-off the insulator surface and therefore quality of pinched plasma depends on the length of the insulator sleeve. The results show that the insulator diameter can influence on pinch quality. Behavior of hard X-ray (HXR) signals with the pressure and also anisotropy of HXR investigated by the use of two scintillation detectors. The distribution of HXR intensity shows a large anisotropy with a maximum intensity between 22.5° and 45° and also between −22.5° and −67.5°.     

Stray Capacitance in a Plasma Focus Device: Implications on the Current Derivative Calibration and the Effective Discharge Current

The notion that PF discharge circuits should be represented by an equivalent circuit having two loops instead of the traditional single one is presented. This implies that two frequencies must be expected in the currents and voltages in these devices. Also, that the current flowing into the plasma is not the same as the current flowing from the capacitor bank. Finally, the difficulties for calibrating in situ a Rogowski coil are discussed.     

Temperature and Nitric Oxide Generation in a Pulsed Arc Discharge Plasma

Nitric oxide （NO） is increasingly being used in medical treatments of high blood pressure, acute respiratory distress syndrome and other illnesses related to the lungs. Currently a NO inhalation system consists of a gas cylinder of N2 mixed with a high concentration of NO. This arrangement is potentially risky due to the possibility of an accidental leak of NO from the cylinder. The presence of NO in the air leads to the formation of nitric dioxide （NO2）, which is toxic to the lungs. Therefore, an on-site generator of NO would be highly desirable for medical doctors to use with patients with lung disease.
To develop the NO inhalation system without a gas cylinder, which would include a high concentration of NO, NAMIHIRA et al have recently reported on the production of NO from room air using a pulsed arc discharge. In the present work, the temperature of the pulsed arc discharge plasma used to generate NO was measured to optimize the discharge condition. The results of the temperature measurements showed the temperature of the pulsed arc discharge plasma reached about 10,000 K immediately after discharge initiation and gradually decreased over tens of microseconds. In addition, it was found that NO was formed in a discharge plasma having temperatures higher than 9,000 K and a smaller input energy into the discharge plasma generates NO more efficiently than a larger one.     

Pinch Current Limitation in Sahand Plasma Focus

In this paper a new version of ML model has been used to simulate discharge dynamics in a 90 kj Fillipove type plasma focus, Sahand. Comparing model predictions with experimentally measured data shows that, the ML model when properly is fitted, is able to realistically simulate the discharge dynamics and consequently can be used to investigate the effect of operational and structural parameters on Sahand PF operation. To determine the optimum parameters which maximize the pinch current I_pinch, the effect of gas pressure and static external inductance L₀, on discharge dynamics in Sahand were investigated. The obtained results show that, for fixed initial stored capacitor energy, there is an optimum gas pressure at which I_pinch has its maximum value. To further increase in I_pinch at the optimum pressure, the static inductance was reduced. The results indicated that there exists an optimum value of L₀, where I_pinch reaches a maximum value and reducing L₀ further will not increase I_pinch. The maximum I_pinch has been achieved at optimum low static inductance at the expense of reducing C.S velocity at the time of pinch. The results of this investigation can confirm the current pinch limitation indicated before for Mather type PFs, for a Fillipov type PF.     

Application of Plasma Focus Device in Fast Industrial Radiography

This paper deals with application of the plasma focus (PF) devices in fast industrial radiography. The results of radiography of a fan unit in both static and rotating states are presented. To do this, an X-ray video camera and the hard X-ray emission due to a PF device have been used. Moreover, the gray levels of the radiograph have been employed to find out the average effective X-ray energy in radiography of the rotating fan.     

快脉冲硬X射线能谱测量实验研究

研究设计了以解析吸收片后的透射率来测量快脉冲硬X射线辐射场能谱的实验方法。对实验方案进行了理论模拟设计,并获得了解谱必要的理论数据,通过测量不同吸收片后光强的实验方法获得了透射系数,用微扰的数学方法完成了测量谱的解析,复现了测量位置处快脉冲硬X射线辐射场能谱,最后对该方法的可靠性进行了验证。     

Treatment of Wastewater with High Conductivity by Pulsed Discharge Plasma

A wastewater treatment system was established by means of pulsed dielectric barrier discharge（DBD）. The main advantage of this system is that the wastewater is employed as one of the electrodes for the degradation of rhodamine B, which makes use of the high conductivity and lessenes its negative influence on the discharge process. At the same time, the reactive species like ozone and ultraviolet（UV） light generated by the DBD can be utilized for the treatment of wastewater. The effects of some factors like conductivity, peak pulse voltage, discharge frequency and pH values were investigated. The results show that the combination of these reactive species could enhance the degradation of the dye while the ozone played the most important role in the process. The degradation efficiency was enhanced with the increase of energy supplied. The reduction in the concentration of rhodamine B was much more effective with high solution conductivity;under the highest conductivity condition, the degradation rate could rise to 99%.     

EAST等离子体放电涡流计算

在托卡马克放电中,由极向场线圈、等离子体电流在真空室上感应产生的涡流对等离子体放电有重要影响,由此感应产生的涡流会反过来在等离子体区域、极向场线圈中产生感应电流,因此,有必要对涡流分布进行准确计算,以实现对等离子体放电的反馈控制。本文将真空室划分为40个单匝环,利用高速CCD图像采集系统获得等离子体放电图像,并通过图像处理获得等离子位置,运用最小二乘法对真空室涡流分布进行计算。将计算结果与EAST放电实验测量数据进行比较,获得了较理想的结果。     

用银激活计数器测量快脉冲中子

本文介绍了银激活计数器测量等离子体焦点快脉冲中子的原理，用加速器Ｄ－Ｄ中子作标准中子源，采用饱和照射方式对探头进行了标定。在探测距离６０ｃｍ，给出探头定标系数η＝（２．６０土０．３２）×１０￣４中子／计数。误差分析表明，作与不作散射中子校正，实际测量焦点中子的相对标准误差小于２０％和３０％。最后给出了测量焦点中子的部分结果。     

Improvement on Diamond Nucleation Treated by Pulsed Arc Discharge Plasma

A technique of improvement on diamond nucleation based on pulsed arc discharge plasma at atmospheric pressure was developed. The pulsed arc discharge was induced respectively by nitrogen, argon and methanol gas. After the arc plasma pretreatment, a nucleation density higher than 10^10 cm^-2 may be obtained subsequently in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on a mirror-polished silicon substrate without any other mechanical treatment. The effects of the arc discharge plasma on the diamond nucleation were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), infrared spectroscopy (IR) and Raman spectroscopy. The enhancement of nucleation is postulated to be a result of the formation of carbonlike phase materials or nitrogenation on the substrate surface without surface defect produced by arc discharge.     

Ultra Fast Shutter Driven by Pulsed High Current

Radiation simulation utilizing plasma radiation sources (PRS) generates a large number of undesirable debris, which may damage the expensive diagnosing detectors. An ultra fast shutter (UFS) driven by pulsed high current can erect a physical barrier to the slowly moving debris after allowing the passage of X-ray photons. The UFS consists of a pair of thin metal foils twisting the parallel axes in a Nylon cassette, compressed with an outer magnetic field, generated from a fast capacitor bank, discharging into a single turn loop. A typical capacitor bank is of 7.5 μF charging voltages varying from 30 kV to 45 kV, with corresponding currents of approximately 90kA to140 kA and discharging current periods of approximately 13.1 μs. A shutter closing time as fast as 38 microseconds has been obtained with an aluminium foil thickness of 100 micrometers and a cross-sectional area of 15 mm by 20 mm. The design, construction and the expressions of the valve-closing time of the UFS are presented along with the measured results of valve-closing velocities.     

Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Processing of Fused Silica in Different Discharge Modes

One of the major advantages of utilizing atmospheric pressure plasma processing(APPP) technology to fabricate ultra-precision optics is that there is no subsurface damage during the process.In APPP,the removal footprint and removal rate are critical to the capability and efficiency of the figuring of the optical surface.In this paper,an atmospheric plasma torch,which can work in both remote mode and contact mode,is presented.The footprints and the removal rates of both modes are compared by profilometer measurements.The influences of process recipes and substrate thickness for both modes are investigated through a series of experiments.When the substrate is thinner than 12 mm,the removal rate in contact mode is higher.However,the removal rate and width of the footprint decrease dramatically as the substrate thickness increases in contact mode.     

Inactivation of Bacteria in Oil Field Injected Water by a Pulsed Plasma Discharge Process

Pulsed plasma discharge was employed to inactivate bacteria in the injection water for an oil field.The effects of water conductivity and initial concentration of bacteria on elimination efficiency were investigated in the batch and continuous flow modes.It was demonstrated that Fe~(2+) contained in injection water could enhance the elimination efficiency greatly.The addition of reducing agent glutathione(GSH) indicated that active radicals generated by pulsed plasma discharges played an important role in the inactivation of bacteria.Moreover,it was found that the microbial inactivation process for both batch and continuous flow mode well fitted the model based on the Weibull's survival function.     

Experiment and Analysis on the Treatment of Gaseous Benzene Using Pulsed Corona Discharge Plasma

An experiment and analysis on removal of gaseous benzene by pulse corona inducedplasma is presented in this article. Important parameters effecting removal efficiency have been investigated, such as pulse peak voltage, pulse frequency, gas inlet concentration, gas flow rate and reactor temperature. The result shows that the removal efficiency increases with the increase in pulse peak voltage, pulse frequency and reactor temperature, but decreases in the rise of gas inlet concentration and gas flow rate. On the condition of Vp = 36 kV, f = 80 Hz, C = 1440 mg/m^3 and Q = 640 ml/min, the largest removal efficiency is 98%. Finally, the reacted products are qualitatively analysed and the reaction processes are deduced in combination with plasma-chemistry theory.     

Enhanced by Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Pretreatment Irradiated by High-Intensity Pulsed Ion Beam

In order to develop a more economical pretreatment method for electroless nickel plating, a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma at atmospheric pressure was used to improve the hydrophilicity and adhesion of poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) nonwoven fabric. The properties of the PET nonwoven fabric including its liquid absorptive capacity (WA), aging behavior, surface chemical composition, morphology of the surface, adhesion strength, surface electrical resistivity and electromagnetic interference (EMI)- shielding effectiveness (SE) were studied. The liquid absorptive capacity (WA) increased due to the incorporation of oxygen-containing and nitrogen-containing functional groups on the surface of PET nonwoven fabric after DBD air-plasma treatment. The surface morphology of the nonwoven fibers became rougher after plasma treatment. Therefore, the surface was more prone to absorb tin sensitizer and palladium catalyst to form an active layer for the deposition of electroless nickel. SEM and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements indicated that a uniform coating of nickel was formed on the PET nonwoven fabric. The average EMI-SE of Ni-plating of PET nonwoven fabric maintained a relatively stable value (38.2 to 37.3 dB) in a frequency range of 50 to 1500 MHz. It is concluded that DBD is feasible for pretreatment of nonwoven fabric for electroless nickel plating to prepare functional material with good EMI-SE properties.     

Influence of Plasma Temperature on the Concentration of NO Produced by Pulsed Arc Discharge

This study conducted experiments on producing inhaled medical nitric oxide(iNO) by pulsed arc discharge in dry and clean air under different discharge current.The concentration of NO and NO 2 produced by air discharge,as well as the change of the ratio of NO 2 /NO under different discharge current were investigated.Through the analysis of plasma emission spectrum,the relationship between discharge current and arc plasma temperature was studied.The results indicate that,as discharge current increases,the arc plasma temperature increases,which then leads to the increase of NO concentration,the decrease of NO 2 concentration,and the rapid decrease of the ratio of NO 2 /NO.When the plasma temperature is 9000 K,the ratio of NO 2 /NO is approximately 60%,while when the plasma temperature varies between 10550 K and 11300 K,the NO 2 /NO ratio is within the range of 4.2% to 4.6%.