Experimental Investigation Of Characteristics Of Non-equilibrium Argon Plasma Jet At Atmospheric Pressure

Non-equilibrium plasma jet at atmospheric is a directional flow of plasma in boundless atmospheric environment, which is carried out from syringe with the effect of gas flow and electrical field. Despite of great achievement in the research of non-equilibrium plasma jet at atmospheric pressure, the difference characteristic of plasma in different experiment setup, discharge model and excitation source can’t support each other’s result. Therefore it is necessary to study the characteristic of non-equilibrium plasma at atmospheric pressure in unified environment. It will mean a lot to enrichment of discharge theory of plasma jet and development of application research of non-equilibrium plasma.In this paper, an experiment set-up based on nanoseconds pulse generator or high frequency ac source is built. A series of experiments with different parameter of discharge Electrode, source output and gas velocity and composition have been conducted. The change of electrical characteristic and spectrum of plasma jet have been obtained and studied. The mechanism of plasma jet is discussed from the aspects of electrical field and gas flow field. Moreover, the advantage and disadvantage of nanosecond pulse generator and high frequency ac source for the generation of plasma jet have been discussed.From the experiment results, the following conclusions can be obtained. Compared with high frequency ac source, a plasma jet activated by nanosecond pulse generator owns more excellent properties and has a bright prospect only if the pulse generator has an output of much higher frequency and longer time of pulse width, which will improve the number of active particles in plasma jet. The discharge model of corona discharge or dielectric barrier discharge has no effect on characteristic of plasma jet. Whatever the power supply is, the electrical field and gas flow field are key factors in propagation of plasma jet, where the propagation behavior depends on the electrical field, and meanwhile the propagation way of jet are guided by the working gas.