Using full physical model for fluorescent lamps in ballast engineering

The theoretical analysis of Hg-rare-gas discharges is sufficiently complex to necessitate the use of simplifying assumptions. In fact, these assumptions restrict seriously the field of application of the models. Thus, a concept common to the existing models was that calculations should be in good agreement with experimental data within a more or less restricted range of applications. Under this condition the use of arbitrary adjustable parameters has been justified up to now. A collisional-radiative model with a large range of application, developed by the authors, is demonstrated in this paper. However, for an electrical engineer, the main difficulty consists on the integration of any plasma physical model within a circuit simulation. Thus we show how it is possible to integrate a complex plasma model in software like SUCCESS, Simulink and PSpice usually used by ballast engineers.