Modeling of DC glow discharges in atmospheric-pressure air and its mixtures with hydrocarbons with account of non-equilibrium effects

Summary form only given, as follows. In this work a model of a low-current DC discharge is developed on the basis of a solution of kinetic equations for the densities of plasma components. It is found out that in atmospheric-pressure air plasma a change of mechanism of ionization occurs at currents about 0.1 A: while the associative ionization in atomic collisions is the dominating mechanism at higher currents, the direct ionization of molecules by electron impact dominates at lower currents. While the electron number density in the arc core is close to the LTE value corresponding to the gas temperature at higher currents, at lower currents it is governed mainly by the magnitude of reduced electric field and may strongly exceed the LTE value. The results of calculation of discharge parameters in a wide current range, covering both LTE and non-LTE regimes, are presented.