On the Determination of the Initial Ignition Voltage of a Surface Discharge in Air

Abstract

The experimental and calculated values of the initial ignition voltage of a surface barrier discharge in atmospheric air in a plane–parallel electrode system with a Plexiglas barrier are presented. It is shown that the calculation of the initial voltage based on a simplified procedure, in which the criterion of the discharge initiation is the realization of the Townsend condition, provides the calculated dependence of the initial voltage on the barrier thickness, which coincides with the experimental data.