Flashover Discharge Measurement With Uniform Surface Charging and Modeling of Current Waveform

Flashover discharge occurs on spacecraft solar array with inverted potential gradient. The flashover discharges have been measured with an electron beam. However, it is difficult to charge the coupon surface uniformly. In this paper, ultraviolet light was used to achieve a uniform surface charging. The discharge current waveforms and surface potentials were measured with changing uniform surface potential. From these test results, the current waveform was calculated with a ladder circuit model. This model shows that the surface potential neutralization pattern is the same as that obtained with the experimental results.