Simulation of the runaway electron beam formed in a discharge in air at atmospheric pressure

作者：Oreshkin E V^*; Barengolts S A; Chaikovsky S A; Oreshkin V I

来源：Physics of Plasmas, 2012, 19(4): 043105.

DOI：10.1063/1.3695349

A numerical model is proposed which allows one to describe the dynamics of the fast electrons injected from the head of an anode-directed streamer. The model is based on solving numerically 3-dimensional equations of motion of electrons. In the context of the model, the number of electrons which can be injected from the surface of a streamer is determined by the number of electrons in the Debye layer. Results of numerical calculations show that about 10% of the electrons in the Debye layer are switched to the mode of continuous acceleration. The electrons that have not switched to the runaway mode form a residual space charge cloud, whose dimensions are several centimeters, near a streamer. The space charge screens the streamer tip; therefore, the generation of the runaway electron beam does not resume.

• 出版日期2012-4