Study of Positive Column in Glow Discharge under Medium Pressures Using Computational Experiment

The positive column of the oxygen and argon-oxygen direct current glow discharge was investigated using a fluid plasma model at pressures around hundreds of pascals and discharge currents from ten to forty miliampers. The model describes the infinitely long positive column in cylindrical discharge tube. It is based on the continuity equation for particle concentration with the collisional right hand side. The model utilises the drift-diffusion approximation of particle flux and the mean-electron-energy approximation for the description of the electron interaction. The radial profile of particle concentration and interaction with the glass wall of the discharge tube is taken into account. The model predicts the electric field and the particle concentration in the positive column. The simulation results were compared with the measured intensity of electric field strength in the oxygen and argon-oxygen mixture. The impact of discharge conditions, like the pressure and gas composition, on the properties of the positive column was investigated. The model confirmed that the strength of longitudinal electric field at medium pressures is about 40 V/cm in oxygen, molecular gas, and it is about 3 V/cm in argon, noble gas