A one-dimensional reduced plasma model for the electrical treeing

Abstract

Plasma models, consisting of advection-diffusion Partial Differential Equations coupled with chemical reactions, are widely adopted to describe corona, streamers and dielectric barrier discharges. However, the complex geometry of the electrical treeing represents an obstacle for numerical simulations. We develop a reduced one-dimensional formulation of a plasma model for the electrical treeing, describing the evolution of charge concentrations under the effect of an electric field. The reduced system consists of weakly coupled advection-diffusion-reaction equations for charge concentrations inside the treeing and on the dielectric surface, coupled with production-destruction Ordinary Differential Equations for the dipole moment. A numerical scheme based on Finite Volumes and Patankar-type methods allows efficient simulations, while preserving key physical properties. The model is tested on increasingly complex geometries, from a straight line to a realistic electrical treeing.