Simulated and experimental studies on the array dielectric barrier discharge of water electrodes

A kind of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) device composed of water electrodes with 3×3 forms can produce large-area low-temperature plasmas at atmospheric pressure. To reflect the discharge characteristics of DBD better, a dynamic simulation model, which is based on the voltage controlled current source (CCS), is established, then the established model in Matlab/ Simulink is used to simulate the DBD in air. The voltage–current waves and Lissajous at a voltage of 10 kV, 11 kV and 12 kV peak value with a frequency of 15 kHz are studied. The change of the discharge power of DBD with a different amplitude and frequency of applied voltage is also analyzed. The result shows the voltage–current waves, Lissajous and discharge power of DBD under different conditions from the simulation agree well with those of the experiment. In addition, we propose a method to calculate the dielectric barrier capacitance C_d and the gap capacitance C_g, which is valid through analyzing the variation of capacitance at different voltage amplitudes.