Effect of rotating a dielectric barrier on discharge energy and uniformity in an atmospheric pressure air DBD

Abstract The application performance of the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) depends on plasma characteristics, especially discharge energy and uniformity. In this study, the plasma characteristics are investigated in a DBD device with a rotating dielectric barrier. The statistical results indicate that rotating a dielectric barrier can effectively improve discharge power and the number of current pulses. Compared to a stationary DBD, the grayscale standard deviation of the discharge images can be significantly reduced, and the microdischarges present a rather diffuse distribution in the rotational DBD. This rotation also leads to an increase in the number of microdischarges and their movement in the direction of rotation. Additionally, a computational fluid dynamics numerical simulation together with the solution of the diffusion and recombination equations for space charges is implemented to study the diffusion, recombination, and transfer with airflow of space residual charges. The results reveal that the space charges move farther than their diffusion limit in most regions when the rotating speed reaches 30 rps (revolution per second). The mechanism of enhancing the discharge energy and uniformity by rotating a dielectric barrier is analyzed based on the local electric field enhancement induced by surface charges and electron detachment from space negative charges.