Electrical Breakdown in Water Vapor
- Institute of Physics, University of Belgrade, Pregrevica 118, 11080 Belgrade (Serbia)
- Centre for Plasma Physics, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queens University Belfast, BT7 1NN (United Kingdom)
In this paper investigations of the voltage required to break down water vapor are reported for the region around the Paschen minimum and to the left of it. In spite of numerous applications of discharges in biomedicine, and recent studies of discharges in water and vapor bubbles and discharges with liquid water electrodes, studies of the basic parameters of breakdown are lacking. Paschen curves have been measured by recording voltages and currents in the low-current Townsend regime and extrapolating them to zero current. The minimum electrical breakdown voltage for water vapor was found to be 480 V at a pressure times electrode distance (pd) value of around 0.6 Torr cm ({approx}0.8 Pa m). The present measurements are also interpreted using (and add additional insight into) the developing understanding of relevant atomic and particularly surface processes associated with electrical breakdown.
- OSTI ID:
- 21612317
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics (Print), Vol. 84, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.84.055401; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1539-3755
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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