Comparison of experiment and simulation on dielectric barrier discharge driven by 50 Hz AC power in atmospheric air

Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is an important method to produce non-thermal plasma, and the excitation using 50 Hz power source is a convenient choice. In the paper, a comparison of simulation and experiment on the DBD produced by 50 Hz power source is given. For the simulation, an electrical model and a voltage-controlled current source are used to simulate the DBD and the dynamic of microdischarges, respectively. As to the experiment, a plane-parallel configuration DBD is driven by 50 Hz power in atmospheric air. It can be found that the measured voltage, current–time and voltage–charge waveforms are consistent with the simulated results. The variation of the discharge power and transported charges as a function of voltage amplitude, gap spacing, and barrier thickness is presented. The quantitative comparison of the experimental and simulated data confirms the validity of the electrical model. In addition, some discussions are given for the experimental and simulated results.