Dielectric-barrier discharges (silent discharges) are used on a large industrial scale. They combine the advantages of non-equilibrium plasma properties with the ease of atmospheric-pressure operation. A prominent feature is the simple scalability from small laboratory reactors to large industrial installations with megawatt input powers. Efficient and cost-effective all-solid-state power supplies are available. The preferred frequency range lies between 1 kHz and 10 MHz, the preferred pressure range between 10 kPa and 500 kPa. Industrial applications include ozone generation, pollution control, surface treatment, high power CO2 lasers, ultraviolet excimer lamps, excimer based mercury-free fluorescent lamps, and flat large-area plasma displays. Depending on the application and the operating conditions the discharge can have pronounced filamentary structure or fairly diffuse appearance. History, discharge physics, and plasma chemistry of dielectric-barrier discharges and their applications are discussed in detail.

https://www3.nd.edu/~sst/teaching/AME60637/reading/2003_PCPP_Kogelschatz_dbd_review.pdf

Dielectric-barrier Discharges: Their History, Discharge Physics, and Industrial Applications

An emerging field of plasma medicine is discussed, where non-equilibrium plasmas are shown to be able to initiate, promote, control, and catalyze various complex behaviors and responses in biological systems. More importantly, it will be shown that plasma can be tuned to achieve the desired medical effect, especially in medical sterilization and treatment of different kind of skin diseases. Wound healing and tissue regeneration can be achieved following various types of plasma treatment in a multitude of wound pathologies. Non-equilibrium plasmas will be shown to be non-destructive to tissue, safe, and effective in inactivation of various parasites and foreign organisms.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ppap.200700154

Applied Plasma Medicine

Active flow control is a topic in full expansion due to associated industrial applications of huge importance, particularly for aeronautics. Among all flow control methods, such as the use of mechanical flaps, wall synthetic jets or MEMS, plasma-based devices are very promising. The main advantages of such systems are their robustness, simplicity, low power consumption and ability for real-time control at high frequency. This paper is a review of the worldwide works on this topic, from its origin to the present. It is divided into two main parts. The first one is dedicated to the recent knowledge concerning the electric wind induced by surface non-thermal plasma actuators, acting in air at atmospheric pressure. Typically, it can reach 8 m s−1 at a distance of 0.5 mm from the wall. In the second part, works concerning active airflow control by these plasma actuators are presented. Very efficient results have been obtained for low-velocity subsonic airflows (typically U∞ ≤ 30 m s−1 and Reynolds number of a few 105), and promising results at higher velocities indicate that plasma actuators could be used in aeronautics.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3727/40/3/S01/pdf

Airflow control by non-thermal plasma actuators

The term plasma actuator has now been a part of the fluid dynamics flow-control vernacular for more than a decade. A particular type of plasma actuator that has gained wide use is based on a single–dielectric barrier discharge (SDBD) mechanism that has desirable features for use in air at atmospheric pressures. For these actuators, the mechanism of flow control is through a generated body-force vector field that couples with the momentum in the external flow. The body force can be derived from first principles, and the effect of plasma actuators can be easily incorporated into flow solvers so that their placement and operation can be optimized. They have been used in a wide range of internal and external flow applications. Although initially considered useful only at low speeds, plasma actuators are effective in a number of applications at high subsonic, transonic, and supersonic Mach numbers, owing largely to more optimized actuator designs that were developed through better understanding and modeling of...

Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Actuators for Flow Control

Gas discharge plasmas and their applications

The aim of this paper is to confirm the existence of atmospheric pressure dielectric controlled glow discharge and to describe its main behavior. Electrical measurements, short time exposure photographs, and numerical modeling were used to achieve this task. Experimental observations and numerical simulation are in good agreement. Therefore, the analysis of the calculated space and time variations of the electric field together with the ion and electron densities helps to explain the discharge mechanisms involved, showing the main role played by the electron as well as helium metastable density just before the discharge is turned on.

Experimental and theoretical study of a glow discharge at atmospheric pressure controlled by dielectric barrier

In this work, we carried out one-dimensional and self-consistent modeling of a high-pressure low-frequency helium discharge between insulated electrodes. We were able to obtain a stationary state which is qualitatively in agreement with the experimental results. We were also able to study the influence of the experimental parameters (gap length, frequency, etc.) on the numerical results. In the near future, we plan to fully include the Penning effect in our model. The calculations will also be extended to two-dimensional geometry.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel2/4605/12965/00592074.pdf

Numerical modelling of high-pressure glow discharges controlled by dielectric barrier

The aim of this paper is to prove the existence of atmospheric pressure dielectric controlled glow discharge and to describe its main behavior Electrical measurements, short time exposure photographs and numerical modelling were used to arrive at the conclusion Experimental observations and numerical simulation agreed within a close range Therefore, the analysis of the calculated space and time variations of the electric field together with the ion and electron densities helps to explain the discharge mechanisms involved

Philippe Decomps

Papers

Experimental and theoretical study of a glow discharge at atmospheric pressure controlled by dielectric barrier

Numerical modelling of high-pressure glow discharges controlled by dielectric barrier

Atmospheric pressure dielectric controlled glow discharges: diagnostics and modelling