Long-lived plasmoids as initiators of combustion of gas mixtures

A slipping surface discharge excited along a multielectrode metal-dielectric system in a chemically active (combustible) CH4-O-2 mixture has been studied experimentally. Results obtained with the help of highspeed photography, shadowgraphy, optical spectroscopy, and piezoelectric measurements are presented. It is shown that the slipping surface discharge is a source of high-temperature, thermally equilibrium metal plasmoids whose lifetime is much longer than the plasma recombination time (long-lived plasmoids). The experimental investigation of the evolution of plasmoids introduced into a combustible gaseous medium allows one to conclude that the medium significantly increases the lifetime of plasmoids and that plasmoids, in turn, play an important role in the initiation of gas-mixture combustion. (C) 2004 MAIK "Nauka/Interperiodica".