Effect of the gas dynamic structure of a flow on the parameters of a self-sustained discharge. I

A study is made of self-sustained glow discharges in transverse gas flows a nd jets. The distributions of the discharge current and voltage over the el ements of a sectioned cathode array are measured along with the temperature of the cathode array. The limiting current and discharge voltage correspon ding to the transition from a uniformly burning discharge to a contracted s tate are measured. Two-dimensional and one-dimensional systems of equations for the gas dynamics and vibrational kinetics are used for a numerical ana lysis of the experimental data, and the results are used to determine the c haracter of the distribution of E/N in the discharge, where E is the electr ic field and N is the molecular density. The heat balance of the cathode ar ray is calculated. A model is proposed for self-consistently calculating th e parameters of the gas flow, the distribution of the current over the cath ode array, and the discharge voltage, as well as the values of the ballast resistances. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S1063-7842(99)00811-9 ].