Streamer or Kanal
mechanism of Spark
Lec#08
Time lag in breakdown.
• There is a time difference between the application of a voltage sufficient to
cause breakdown and the occurrence of breakdown itself. This time difference is
called time lag.
• The time t which lapses between the application of the voltage sufficient to cause
breakdown and the appearance of the initiating electron (io/primary ionization) is
called statistical time lag (ts) of the gap.
• The appearance of electrons is usually statistically distributed. After the
appearance of the electron, a time tt is required for the ionization process to
develop fully (generation of secondary ionization) and then cause breakdown of
the gap, and this time is called formative time lag.
• The total time lag is accumulative effect of above-mentioned time lags.
• T= ts+tf
Shortcoming in Townsend’s
mechanism of spark
• In Townsend’s mechanism of current growth, current has been
considered due to ionization but in practice current is dependent on
the pressure and the geometry of the gap as well.
• According to Townsend’s generation mechanism, the time required
for breakdown by normal avalanche propagation is determined by the
drift velocity of electrons. (The Townsend’s mechanism predicts the
time lag of the order of 10-5 sec, while in actual practice breakdown
occurs in less than 10-8 sec.)
• Townsend’s theory failed to describe the time lag caused in spark
discharge.
Shortcoming in Townsend’s
mechanism of spark
• Townsend’s mechanism predicted the diffused type of gas discharge
but in actual practice the discharge was filamentary and irregular.
• Townsend’s theory suggested that time required for breakdown in
longer gap distances was too long contrary to the actual time
measured experimentally. [confirmed by Raether in 1939] (Fails to
explain the formative time lag of breakdown)
• All these facts necessitated a novel approach for breakdown
mechanism suitable for longer gap distances in uniform field.
Streamer or Kanal
• The word “ streamer ”
means a ribbon attached at
one end and floating or
waving at the other in wind.
• When a number of such long
narrow strips wave together,
they appear to be a set of
waves or ripples moving
forward.
• The term “ Kanal ” has been
taken from German language
which means a canal or a
channel.
• A streamer discharge, also known as filamentary discharge, is a type of transient electrical
discharge which forms at the surface of a conductive electrode carrying a high voltage in an
insulating medium such as air. Streamers are luminous writhing branching sparks, plasma
channels composed of ionized air molecules, which repeatedly strike out from the
electrode into the air.
• Like the related corona discharges and brush discharges, a streamer discharge represents a
region around a high voltage conductor where the air has suffered electrical breakdown
and become conductive (ionized), so electric charge is leaking off the electrode into the air.
It occurs when the electric field at the surface of a conductor exceeds the dielectric
strength of air, around 30 kilovolts per centimeter. When the electric field created by the
applied voltage reaches this threshold, accelerated electrons strike air molecules with
enough energy to knock other electrons off them, ionizing them, and the freed electrons
go on to strike more molecules in a chain reaction. These electron avalanches (Townsend
discharges) create ionized, electrically conductive regions in the air near the electrode. The
space charge created by the electron avalanches gives rise to an additional electric field,
causing the ionized region to grow at its ends, forming a finger-like discharge called a
streamer.
Streamers are able to propagate towards cathode (positive
streamer, and towards anode (negative streamer, In both
cases of positive and negative streamers, propagation is
caused by electrons drift and diffusion.
Streamer or Kanal mechanism of
Spark
• The space charge created due to the ionization (primary avalanches)
and photoionization (secondary effect) produces space charge in the
gap of the electrode.
• If the gap is significantly high, the field produced by the space charge
Ea is comparable to the field applied externally E0. The transformation
from the avalanche to streamer begin to develop from the head of
the avalanche when the number of charge carriers increased to
critical value .
• For an avalanche initiated by a single electron (no=1) in a uniform
field, this corresponds to value where xc is the length of avalanche in
the field direction when it amplifies to its critical size.
• The streamer mechanism is possible
only when and when is longer than the
gap length d ( the initializing of
streamer is unlikely to happen.
• On the basis of experimental results,
Reather developed the following
empirical formula for the streamer
breakdown criterion:
• Field intensifies towards the head and tail
of the avalanche acquiring magnitude of
(Eo+Ea), while above the positive ion
region, the field is reduced to Eo-Ea.
• It is evident that the space charge
strengthens as the length of the
avalanche increases.
• The condition for the transition from
avalanche to streamer breakdown is when
space charge field is near the externally
applied field (), hence the equation
becomes .
• The minimum value of the required for the breakdown in uniform
field gap by streamer mechanism is obtained on the assumption
that the transition from avalanche to streamer occurs when an
avalanche of critical size just extends across the gap d. Now the
breakdown criterion takes form of
• Thus the condition gives the smallest value of to produce streamer
breakdown.
• The streamer breakdown criterion can
therefore be interpreted as a condition for
the development of significant field
distortion caused by intense spark charge
within a single avalanche so that its field
intensity is comparable to the externally
applied field.
• As it is clarified from the figure, Townsend
neglected the field intensification towards
the head and tail of the avalanche, the
field intensification causes the steamer
breakdown in less time as was assumed
by Townsend for longer gaps d.
• Cloud chamber experiments performed to study the transition from
avalanche to streamer by Raether revealed very interesting results.
• On applying a voltage pulse, as described by Raether, it was observed
that when nearly approached a value 20, a so - called plasma
streamer bridged the electrodes after about 10 to 15 ns.
• Observations in the dark showed that only a thin thread of blue light
was visible. Hence the streamer needed only 10 to 15 ns to cross a 3.6
cm gap distance. This amounts to a velocity of propagation of a few
108 cm/sec (200 to 400 cm/µ sec).
• In this time, a normal avalanche breakdown as described by
Townsend would have propagated only a few millimeters.
• After the streamer has been produced, it shall decay in short time as
transient goes out in short time.
• The fast moving electrons shall reach anode leaving back positive ions,
these positive ions will eject electrons from cathode. The electrons
coming out from cathode shall get attached with positive ions and the
medium gets neutralized for some moment.
Description of cathode-directed
streamer breakdown mechanism:
• When the avalanche extends across the gap, the electrons are swept
into the anode, and the positive ions in the tail of the avalanche
stretch out across the gap as shown in Figure. A highly localized space
charge field due to positive ions is produced near the anode but since
the ion density elsewhere is low, it does not constitute a breakdown
in the gap.
• In the gas surrounding the avalanche, secondary electrons are
produced by photons and photoelectric effect at the cathode. The
secondary electrons initiate the secondary avalanches, which are
directed toward the stem of the main avalanche.
• If the space charge field developed by the main avalanche is of the
order of the applied field intensity, the secondary electrons are
produced in the gas due to field enhancement. Thus the secondary
avalanches feed into the primary avalanche as shown in figures.
• The positive ions left behind by the secondary avalanches effectively
lengthen and intensify the space charge of the main avalanche in the
direction of the cathode and the process develops in the form of a self
- propagating streamer breakdown shown in Figure.
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