The Simulation of Dielectric Barrier Discharge for Breakdown Voltage in Starch Modification

Abstract

This paper presents the simulation results for dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) at atmospheric pressure in argon gas for different relative permittivity, granule shape, thickness layer, and granule diameter measurements for starch on the breakdown voltage. DBD is commonly utilized to generate cold plasma for starch modification. The electric field was computed using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3a software. The breakdown voltage was calculated employing Paschen’s law for this electric field. The voltage was found according to the breakdown criterion for gap distance 0.2–1.0 cm, and then the Paschen curve could be plotted. The results show that the top electrode of the plasma system may be replaced with the parallel plate electrode by a mesh electrode with a bigger mesh size to achieve a lower breakdown voltage. In addition, increasing the relative permittivity and decreasing the thickness layer can reduce the applied voltage for plasma formation. When compared to the sphere and ellipsoid shapes, starch with a polyhedral granule shape requires a significantly lower voltage for breakdown. The starch granule diameter does not affect the breakdown voltage. These findings can be utilized to determine the optimal breakdown voltage for each type of starch modification, contributing to the construction of a high-efficiency plasma production system for starch modification.