Construction and test of a moving boundary model for negative streamer discharges

Abstract

Starting from the minimal model for the electrically interacting particle densities in negative streamer discharges, we derive a moving boundary approximation for the ionization fronts. The boundary condition on the moving front is found to be of 'kinetic undercooling' type. The boundary approximation, whose first results have been published in [Meulenbroek et al., PRL 95, 195004 (2005)], is then tested against 2-dimensional simulations of the density model. The results suggest that our moving boundary approximation adequately represents the essential dynamics of negative streamer fronts.

10 pages, 7 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev. E

References in corpus (12)

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• Positive and negative streamers in ambient air: modeling evolution and velocities
• Streamers, sprites, leaders, lightning: from micro- to macroscales
• Density models for streamer discharges: beyond cylindrical symmetry and homogeneous media
• Saffman-Taylor streamers: mutual finger interaction in an electric breakdown
• Convective stabilization of a Laplacian moving boundary problem with kinetic undercooling
• A moving boundary model motivated by electric breakdown: II. Initial value problem
• Saffman-Taylor fingers with kinetic undercooling
• Derivation of a merging condition for two interacting streamers in air
• A moving boundary problem motivated by electric breakdown: I. Spectrum of linear perturbations
• Moving boundary approximation for curved streamer ionization fronts: Solvability analysis
• Moving boundary approximation for curved streamer ionization fronts: Numerical tests
• Interaction of streamers and stationary corrugated ionization waves in semiconductors