Discharge Occurring at a Grounded Electrode Located in a Charged Particles Cloud

Abstract

Electrical discharge phenomena occurring from a grounded electrode located in a charged particles cloud have been investigated. Soil conditioning powder particles charged by corona charging were blown to form a space charge cloud. A grounded sphere electrode was placed at the center of the charged cloud to produce an electrical discharge. Positively pulse discharge extended from the sphere electrode toward the charged cloud with a strong luminescence. The brush-like streamer with the maximum length of 170mm appeared at an interval of 30ms. The maximum pulse height of the discharge was 2.4A. The distribution of the electric field around the sphere electrode was obtained from field analysis using a concentric spherical model. It was found that the magnitude of the discharge depends on the radius of the grounded electrode, the size and charge density of the cloud.