Development of high-voltage nanosecond discharge in combustible mixtures

Abstract

The discharge development inmethane- and hydrogen-oxygenmixtures under repeated high-voltage nanosecond pulses is studied. It is shown that the fraction of the energy deposited in the methane-oxygen-mixture discharge and the maximum discharge current pass through a minimum with increasing number of pulses, and the plasma decay rate, on the contrary, reaches a maximum. The observed features are explained by partial fuel oxidation with the result that intermediate components are accumulated in the combustiblemixture, which result in rapid electron loss and decay plasma enhancement.