On the different regimes of positive DC corona discharges as a function of electrical and geometrical parameters

This experimental study aims to better understand the electrical and optical properties of a positive DC corona discharge and to highlight the influence of applied voltage and electrode gap on the discharge regime. When the high voltage is increased, three successive regimes have been observed, including one that has never been reported in the literature to the best of our knowledge. This is certainly due to the fact that the tungsten needle used in these experiments is a commercial needle, with a tip of perfect surface finish. In fact, after the ignition voltage, the mean current slowly increases, and it perfectly follows the theoretical Townsend's law; this is the glow regime. When the voltage reaches a first threshold, a few small current pulses appear. However, this is not the breakdown streamer regime because photographs and intensified camera visualizations highlight that the propagation of streamers toward the grounded plate is limited to half of the gap. In this regime, the time-averaged current becomes higher than that of Townsend's law. Each current pulse is composed of only one bump, and the pulse frequency is higher (approximately 20 kHz) than that of the breakdown streamers. When the voltage reaches a second threshold, the magnitude of current pulses suddenly increases, but their frequency decreases (a few kHz); this is the transition toward the breakdown streamer regime. In this regime, each current pulse is composed of two bumps: the first one corresponds to the arrival of a primary streamer at the plate and the second one corresponds to a secondary streamer. Finally, we investigated the effects of the electrode gap. The magnitude and frequency of the current pulses increase when the gap decreases. Consequently, the offset between Townsend's curve and the experimental I-V characteristics increases when the gap decreases, because the pulse component of the total discharge current increases.