Modelling of an afterglow plasma in air produced by a pulsed discharge

International audienceA kinetic model is developed to study the afterglow plasma of a pulsed discharge in air. This model includes a detailed analysis of the temporal evolution of heavy species during the pulse, followed by their relaxation in the afterglow. The predicted results are compared with two experimental sets performed in the time afterglow of a pulsed discharge in N220%O2 at a pressure p = 133 Pa involving the measurements of (i) N2(B) and N2(C) fluorescences for a discharge current I = 40 mA and a pulse duration τ = 200 µs and 10 ms, together with (ii) the absolute concentration of NO(X) for I = 40 and 80 mA with τ varying from 1 to 4 ms. The results of the model agree reasonably well with the measurements of N2(B) and N2(C) decays. It is shown that under these experimental conditions, N2(B) is always populated mainly via the process N2(A) N2(X, 5 ≤ v ≤ 14) → N2(B) N2(X, v = 0), while the relaxation of N2(C) is dominated by the pooling reaction N2(A) N2(A) → N2(C) N2(X, v = 0). An almost constant concentration of NO(X) is experimentally observed until the remote afterglow, but the present model is only capable of predicting the same order of magnitude for afterglow times t 0.05 s. Several hypotheses are discussed and advanced in order to explain this discrepancy