Tao Fengbo

A Repetitive Nanosecond Pulse Source for Generation of Large Volume Streamer Discharge

Using a unipolar pulse with the rise time and the pulse duration in the order of microsecond as the primary pulse, a nanosecond pulse with the repetitive frequency of several kilohertz is generated by a spark gap switch. By varying both the inter-pulse duration and the pulse frequency, the voltage recovery rate of the spark gap switch is investigated at different working conditions such as the gas pressure, the gas composition as well as the bias voltage. The results reveal that either increase in gas pressure or addition of SF6 to the air can increase the voltage recovery rate. The effect of gas composition on the voltage recovery rate is discussed based on the transferring and distribution of the residual space charges. The repetitive nanosecond pulse source is also applied to the generation of large volume, and the discharge currents are measured to investigate the effect of pulse repetition rate on the large volume streamer discharge.

Design of a Rogowski Coil with a Magnetic Core Used for Measurements of Nanosecond Current Pulses

A Rogowski coil is developed to detect the nanosecond pulse signals of the discharge current with a wide bandwidth of 800 kHz to 106 MHz and high sensitivity of 2.22 V/A. Performance tests show that the Rogowski coil has both excellent dynamic and static characteristics. Calibrating results and the comparison between the standard current shunt and the developed Rogowski coil for the measurement of nanosecond discharge pulses demonstrate that the developed Rogowski coil can reproduce the actual waveform of the discharge current accurately.