Experimental and simulation analysis of dielectric barrier discharge based pulsed cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet

In this paper, experimental and simulation investigations have been carried out for the characterization of the dielectric barrier discharge based cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet (C-APPJ) for a unique geometry in which argon gas is used at different flow rates along with pulsed DC supply at different frequencies. A tapered structure has been fabricated for acquiring sufficient velocity of the gas at a low flow rate. The typical V–I characteristic of the C-APPJ has been presented for a wide range of flow rates (1–5 SLM) and frequencies (10–25 kHz). On increasing the gas flow rate and frequency, discharge sustains for the lower potential of 5 kV and requires low power. It has been observed that the power dissipation for the formation of the plasma jet increases on increasing frequency at a constant flow rate. Also, the analysis of discharge current is presented for each combination of the flow rate and operating frequencies. Furthermore, the investigation has been carried out for the analysis of electron density, velocity distribution of gas, and distribution of the electric field in the C-APPJ for the same experimental geometry through the simulation tool COMSOL Multiphysics. The maximum electric field of 3.22×106 V/m and the maximum electron density of 3.38×1019 1/m3 have been observed during the propagation of the plasma jet at 1 SLM flow rate. Such qualitative analysis of jet formation along the electric field distribution in a wide range of operating parameters would certainly be helpful in the development of dielectric barrier discharge based C-APPJ sources suitable for the biomedical and food related applications.