Effects of airflow on the distribution of filaments in atmospheric AC dielectric barrier discharge

\Atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) accompanied by airflow has attracted a significant attention for its extensive applications. In this paper, the effects of airflow on the characteristics of the atmospheric air DBD plasma are experimentally investigated using the DBD reactor excited by a 15 kHz AC power source. In order to study the discharge filaments distribution at different flow rates, transparent conductive indium tin oxide film is used as the upper electrode, and quartz glasses are used as insulated dielectrics. Experiment results prove that the breakdown voltage is decreased and more current pulses with declined amplitudes are produced when the airflow is introduced into the discharge gap. It is confirmed that although the discharge seems to be diffuse in the presence of airflow to the naked eyes, the discharge mode remains filamentary in the intensified charge-coupled device images within a single AC cycle. By acquiring the images with a different exposure time, it can be recognized that the discharge filaments move along the flow field direction with a velocity less than the corresponding flow rate. The movement of discharge filaments is attributed to the motion of the charge induced by the airflow. Published by AIP Publishing.