| Abstract: | It is known that a breakdown in gases can take place in two fundamental ways: by diffusion (the Townsend breakdown) or by forming a narrow current channel (the streamer breakdown). At present there are no reliable criteria for one or another of these mechanisms to occur. It is also an open question as far as the pressure region p < 10 mm Hg I] is concerned. Even in the case of special preionization it is not always possible to avoid the streamer stage breakdown. It is obvious that the fundamental cause of a streamer breakdown is related to higher intensity of the electric field around the localized zone of higher conductivity 2]. In 3] the superiority was shown of using numerical methods in the analysis of an axisymmetric cathode directed streamer between two flat electrodes in nitrogen. In the present article the results are described of computations carried out to find out whether a mechanism is feasible for fusing the discharge at any early stage of ignition for the geometry of a flat electrode plane, which is the most favorable to an anode-oriented streamer. This effect was investigated within the framework of a nonstationary system of three equations in which the ionization processes, the recombinations in the balance of charged particles as well as the effect if space charge on the electric-field distribution have been taken into account 4], One has ignored the diffusion, which is also favorable to the streamer breakdown.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 5, pp. 49–54, September–October, 1978.The authors would like to express their thanks to A. A. Vedenov, A. P. Napartovich, and A. N. Starostin for their unceasing interest in this work and useful discussions. |
