Oscillation of Gas Density in the Gas Filament Remained by a Streamer Discharge in Water

Abstract

When a streamer discharge occurs in water, several luminous plasma filaments will be created in the water during the discharge. After the discharge, these plasma filaments turn into neutral gas phase and remain in water. The gas filament remained in water is a good object for studying the basic processes involved in the streamer propagation. We investigated the evolution of the gas filaments remained in water after a streamer discharge at different experimental conditions. We recorded eight successive images during one discharge pulse. The density of gas in the gas filament and the radius of the gas filament were measured from the obtained images. We found that the radius of the gas filament and the density of gas in the gas filament are almost not influenced by the impulse voltage within the range studied. While the conductivity of water has strong effect on the radius of the gas filament and the density of gas in the gas filament. The radius of the gas filament becomes thicker and expands faster as the conductivity of water becomes larger. The density of gas in the gas filament remained in water oscillates between 400 to 800 kg/m3 with an duration of ~10 μs during the expansion period of 4–39 μs after the HV pulse starts. Both the impulse voltage and the conductivity of water do not affect the oscillation duration of the density of gas in the gas filament.