Accurate prediction method of breakdown voltage in air at atmospheric pressure

To predict accurately the breakdown voltage in air at atmospheric pressure, a fully coupled finite element analysis combining the hydrodynamic diffusion-drift equations with Poisson's equation is proposed in the current paper. As three kinds of charged transport particles are nonlinearly coupled with spatial electric fields, the equations should be solved by an iterative numerical scheme, in which secondary effects, such as photoemission and photoionization, are considered. The proposed method has been successfully applied to evaluate the breakdown voltage in circular parallel-plane electrodes. Its validity has been proved through the comparison of the predicted and experimental results. The effects of numerical conditions of the initial charge, photoemission, and background ionization on the discharge phenomena are quantitatively assessed through Taguchi's design of experiment method.