Frequency of Corona Discharge Trichel Pulses in Air Flows

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Abstract
A phenomenological study was made to determine to what extent air streams affect electrical discharges between a negative needle and a plane at atmospheric pressure. When such discharges were operated at a constant current, first in still air and then with a wind blowing in the direction perpendicular to the gap axis, it was found that a lesser voltage was required to maintain the constant current in the latter case. In general, the repetition frequency of Trichel pulses is known to be approximately proportional to the gap current. We found that the blowing of a wind between the electrodes resulted in a pronounced decrease in the frequency, i.e., an increase in the average number of charges per pulse at constant gap current. These observations demonstrate the effect of current enhancement in windblown coronas, a phenomenon which is due to the removal of the negative ions which tend to reduce the electric field in the vital cathode region.