Barrier discharge characteristics of wire-pole electrodes with ferro-electric barriers

Corona discharge induced non-thermal plasma has been used for cleaning of dust particles, VOCs, NOx, SO/sub 2/, etc. in flue gas. Barrier discharge with ferro-electric materials can generate strong streamer corona and often can be used for such applications. In this paper, the characteristics of ferro-electric barrier discharge were experimentally investigated for wire-rod and wire-quadrupole type electrode geometries. In the present experimental apparatus, all the grounding electrodes covered by 1mm thick glass tubes and with/without 0.3mm thick barium titanate sheath on corona wires were tested. The dielectric constant of barium titanate is approximately 10,000. The results show that: (1) when corona wire is covered with barium titanate sheath, discharge current slightly decreases in each electrode configuration by comparison with no ferro-electric barriers; (2) compared with wire-rod, the current pulse frequency in the quadrupole become higher. The effects of dielectric barriers on the discharge current waveforms; were discussed in detail.