Filament Formation Mechanism for a Nanosecond Surface Barrier Discharge. Part 2. The Local-Energy Approximation

The development of a surface barrier discharge driven by a negative steplike voltage pulse with an amplitude of V = –8 kV in air at the atmospheric pressure and a pulse with an amplitude of V = –15 kV in nitrogen at a pressure of 6 atm is simulated numerically. Calculations for V = –8 kV were carried out using the local-electric-field and the local-electron-energy approximations. It is demonstrated that both approximations yield similar results on the dynamics of discharge development as a whole, the cathode-layer structure, and the field distribution at the front of the discharge. Substantial differences are observed in parameters of the discharge layer adjacent to the dielectric surface, which allowed to simulate an effect similar to filamentation of the discharge in nitrogen at a pressure of 6 atm and voltage of V = –15 kV in the local-energy approximation.