Trichel Pulse Characteristics in Negative dc Corona

Discharge
Kefeng Shang, Xiangxin Xue Xiaochen Wang
Northeastern University Liaoning Academy of Environmental Sciences
Shenyang, P.R.China Shenyang, P.R.China
Email: shangkf2002@yahoo.com.cn

Abstract—Trichel pulse characteristics of needle-to-plate waveforms.

electrode were studied. The experimental results indicate that This paper studied the effect of needle tip diameter and
time-averaged corona current increased with the voltage, but the electrode spacing on the current amplitude, pulse frequency
peak pulse current decreased with the voltage; when the and pulse duration time of Trichel pulses, and the formation
averaged electric field strength reached about 7.6kV/cm, Trichel
mechanism of Trichel pulse was also discussed.
pulse was not steady and easily converted to pulseless corona.
The curvature radius had influence on the current amplitude of II. EXPERIMENTAL
Trichel pulse, and higher current amplitude was obtained when
discharge needle with bigger curvature radius was used as The schematic of discharge setup was shown in Fig. 1. The
cathode. The experiment also indicate that the electron released discharge cathode was a silver-gilt stainless steel needle, and
from the cathode by field emission might play an important role the anode was a grounded stainless steel plate with a
in the development of Trichel pulse, and hot electron emission dimension of 100mm×100mm. The distance (h) between
might also play some role. cathode and anode could be adjusted. The needle cathode was
connected with a negative dc high voltage generator through a
Keywords- Trichel pulse；negative corona discharge；needle-
2 MΩ ballast resistor which was used to restrain the spark
to-plate electrode; corona characteristics
breakdown. The waveforms and the values of voltage and
current were also monitored by a digital oscilloscope (HP
I. INTRODUCTION Infinium 54810A) through a high voltage probe and a dc
Negative corona discharge in the air, which worked in the current probe, respectively. Discharge images of needle
regime of Trichel pulses, has widespread applications in electrode were recorded with a Cosina camera, and the typical
electrostatics precipitation, electrophotography, etc. Trichel discharge image under a voltage of 25.5kV was shown in
pulse was generated on the needle tip which was supplied with Fig.2. This picture was obtained under an exposure time of
negative dc high voltage. Trichel firstly discussed it in 1938. about 5s. The needle tip diameter is 0.2mm and the distance
Later, its generation mechanisms were extensively discussed. between needle and plate was 15mm.
Trichel thought the periodic pulse was caused by the
accumulation and dispersion of positive ions in the discharge
zone [1]. Leob [2] thought that the appearance of Trichel pulse
attributed to electric field attenuation caused by the negative
ions which were produced in the electron avalanche process,
and Trichel pulse only occurred in electronegative gases [3].
Hosokawa et al [4] suggested that the secondary electron
emission caused by electron avalanche led to the generation of
Trichel pulse, and β ray emitted by cathode enhanced the
electron emission. Morrow et al put forward a new generation
mechanism about Trichel pulse. He suggested that the ions
induced by secondary emission processes and the photo-
electrons emission on the cathode surface were important in
the formation of the complex form of Trichel pulses [5, 6].
Napartovich et al [7-8] put forward that the negative ions
played little role in the generation of Trichel pulses. Cernak et
al [9-12] studied the Trichel pulses produced in different
gases. He suggested that the ionization process controlling the
pulse generation was streamer feedforward mechanism, and
the electron avalanche enhanced by photo-ionization played an Figure 1. Experimental setup for needle-plate negative dc discharge
important role in the “step” phenomena on Trichel pulse

This work is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the

Central Universities in P. R. China [N090323004].

978-1-4244-6255-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

 0.0

(a)
-0.1

-0.2

I(mA)
-0.3

-0.4
Discharge Voltage 5.1kV
Discharge Current 10µA
-0.5
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
t(µs)

0.0

-0.1 (b)
Figure 2. Discharge images of needle-plate electrode
-0.2

I(mA)
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION -0.3
3.1 Trichel pulses characteristics
-0.4 Discharge Voltage 7kV
The typical I-V curve of needle-to-plate electrode is shown Discharge Current 50µA
in Fig.3. In this experiment, the discharge cathode was same to -0.5
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
that in Fig.2. By monitoring the current waveforms we found t(µs)
that the corona onset voltage was about 5kV, and the Trichel
pulses appeared after corona started. Time-averaged corona 0.0
current amplitude increased with voltage, but the current
-0.1
amplitude of Trichel pulses decreased, instead, the pulse (c)
frequency increased. When the time-averaged current reached I(mA) -0.2
about 120μA, Trichel pulses converted to pulseless corona,
there after to glow corona at the time-averaged current of -0.3
about 320μA. In the regime of glow corona, corona current
-0.4
increased fast, when the current reached about 740μA, the Discharge Voltage 9.5kV
Discharge Current 90µA
spark broke the gap between cathode and anode. -0.5
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
800 t(µs)
Spark
700 I2 0.0
600
Glow -0.1
500
-0.2 (d)
400
I(µA)

I1
I(mA)

300
Pulseless Corona -0.3
200 I
0
100 -0.4
Trichel Pulse U1 Discharge Voltage 11.4kV
0 Discharge Current 120µA
5 10 15 20 25 -0.5
(a) 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
U(kV) t(µs)

Figure 3. V-I Characteristic of Pin-plane Negative DC Discharge Figure 4. Trichel pulse waveform under different voltages

The typical current waveforms of single Trichel pulse under

different voltages are shown in Fig.4, and the corresponding TABLE I. CURRENT PULSE PARAMETERS UNDER DIFFERENT VOLTAGES
current pulse parameters were listed in Table I. U Ia Ip tw tr
From Fig.4 and Table I we could find that time-averaged kV µA mA ns ns
current value increased with voltage, and current pulse rise 5.1 10 0.25 350 20
time extended, but the current pulse duration decreased with
7 50 0.18 280 30
voltage. When the discharge voltage increased over 11.4kV,
the Trichel pulse was unstable and the corona was easily 9.8 90 0.13 220 70
converted to pulseless discharge regime. 11.4 120 0.05 200 100
 Pulse intensity of Trichel pulses decreased with the
increasing voltage could attribute to the attenuation of electric
filed caused by the accumulation of space charges in corona
zone. Leob et al [3] suggested that the accumulation and
dispersion of negative ions was the main reason which resulted
in the change of the total electric field intensity, and they also
thought current pulses only appeared in electronegative gases.
But Trichel pulses were also observed in electropositive gases
[13], the accumulation of space charges was not the sole factor
which resulted in the attenuation of total electric field.
Moreover, we could found from the current waveforms in Fig.4
the change of pulse duration time and current amplitude was
smaller. Under the same needle diameter (comparing Fig.5-(a)
and (c) or Fig.5-(b) and (d)), we could find that Trichel pulse
frequency increased with corona current.
0.0
-0.2
-0.4

I(mA)
that the proportion of dc component was not small, which
might partly attribute to the ions shift in periodic pulse -0.6
ionization process. In addition, as time-averaged current value
increased, the pulse amplitude decreased; however, the -0.8 Discharge Current 100µA
proportion of dc component in time-averaged current increased r=0.2mm (c)
yet. The phenomena indicate that the ions shift caused by -1.0
0 10 20 30 40 50
periodic ionization was not the sole source for dc component in t(µs)
current waveform, and there existed another ionization process
which led to pulseless corona when Trichel pulses disappeared. 0.0
This ionization process might mainly attribute to the field
electron emission, also heat electron emission might play some -0.2
role because Joule heating effect enhanced with the increasing
corona current. -0.4

I(mA)
3.2 Effect of needle tip diameter on the current amplitude and
-0.6
frequency
-0.8
0.0 Discharge Current 100µA
r=0.005mm (d)
-1.0
-0.2 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
t(µs)
-0.4
I(mA)

Figure 5. Trichel Pulse Waveforms under different needle tip diameter

-0.6
Table II shows the maximum Trichel pulse amplitude under
-0.8 different needle-to-plate spacing and needle tip diameter. The
Discharge Current 20µA Trichel pulse would disappear under higher voltage after the
r=0.2mm (a)
-1.0 current pulse magnitude was obtained. When the needle tip
0 10 20 30 40 50 diameter was bigger, higher current magnitude could be
t(µs) obtained before Trichel pulse converted to pulseless discharge;
0.0 but needle-to-plate spacing had little influence on the current
amplitude of Trichel pulse. When the needle-to-plate spacing
-0.2 increased, the current pulse magnitude decreased slightly.

-0.4 TABLE II. TRICHEL PULSE AMPLITUDE UNDER DIFFERENT NEEDLE AND
I(mA)

NEEDLE-PLATE SPACING

-0.6 Needle tip diameter/mm

Needle-plate
spacing /mm 0.005 0.125 0.2 0.4
-0.8
Discharge Current20µA 10 1.1 mA 7.8 mA 9.7 mA 12.5 mA
(b)
r=0.005mm
-1.0 15 0.9 mA 7.4 mA 9.5 mA 12.1 mA
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
t(µs) 20 0.8 mA 7.2 mA 9.3 mA 11.9 mA
25 0.8 mA 6.9 mA 9.1 mA 12.1 mA
Fig.5-(a) ~ (d) show the corona current waveforms at
different corona currents and discharge needle diameter. IV. CONCLUSIONS
Comparing the waveforms in Fig. 5-(a) and (b) or Fig.5-(c) and
(d), we could find when discharge needle with sharper tip were In this paper, Trichel pulse characteristics of needle-to-plate
used as cathode, the current waveforms were more regular, and electrodes were studied. The experimental results indicate that
applied voltage, tip diameter of needle cathode, and needle-to-
plate diameter influenced the current amplitude of Trichel
pulse, and higher current amplitude was obtained under higher
voltage, needle with bigger curvature radius. But the current
pulse duration decreased with applied voltage, and the current
waveforms were more regular with smaller needle tip
diameter.
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