Electromagnetic and Thermal Phenomena Modeling of Electrical Discharges in Liquids

Marcin Wesołowski , Sylwester Tabor , Paweł Kiełbasa , Sławomir Kurpaska

Abstract

Electrical discharges in liquids have received lots of attention with respect to their potential applications in various techniques and technical processes. Exemplary, they are useful for water treatment, chemical and thermal processes acceleration, or nanoparticles production. In this paper the special utility of discharges for cold pasteurization of fruit juices is presented. Development of devices for its implementation is a significant engineering problem and should be performed using modeling and simulation techniques to determine the real parameters of discharges. Unfortunately, there is a lack of clear and uniform description of breakdown phenomena in liquids. To overcome this limitation, new methods and algorithms for streamers propagation and breakdown phase analysis are presented in the paper. All solutions were tested in “active area” in the form of liquid material model, placed between two flat electrodes. Electromagnetic and thermal-coupled field analysis were performed to determine all the factors that affect the discharge propagation. Additionally, some circuit models were used to include the power source cooperation with discharge region. In general, presented solutions can be defined as universal and one can use them for numerical simulation of other types of discharges