How bead shapes affect the plasma streamer characteristics in packed-bed dielectric barrier discharges: a kinetic modeling study

Different shapes of dielectric packing beads could affect streamer propagating direction, plasma streamer behavior, and streamer types, such as surface discharge, surface-to-surface discharge, and volume discharge. In this paper, a 2D particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision model is used to investigate the effect of the bead shapes on streamer characteristics in packed-bed dielectric barrier discharges. We calculate the electron density, ion density, excitation rate, ionization rate and the electric field with different bead shapes in two cases of seed electron configurations. The results demonstrate that both the configurations of seed electrons and the shape of beads could influence plasma properties. In the case of seed electrons located directly above the beads, the streamer cannot be generated with square beads, while weak surface ionization waves (SIWs) are developed with circle and triangle beads, when the distance between the seed electrons and the upper plate is as close as 0.02 mm. Whereas, the distance between the seed electrons and the upper plate is 0.06 mm, the streamers can be generated with all three bead shapes, but SIWs are still weak. This is because different shapes of beads induce different electric field and surface charging along the dielectric bead surfaces, determining the generation of SIWs. In the case of seed electrons placed between two beads, streamers can propagate in all three bead shape configurations, and the SIWs are enhanced.