Characterization of Gliding Arc Discharge with

Auxiliary Electrodes
C. Hăisan, P. Kříž, J. Cerman, P. Špatenka, E. Hnatiuc
“Gh. Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Romania
cornel_haisan@yahoo.com

II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

Abstract-The aim of this paper is to characterize gliding arc
(GlidArc) discharge with and without auxiliary electrodes, in the
same enclosure, with the same shape for the main electrodes.
For characterization we will present the temperature
distribution and temperature of the main electrodes for different
gas flows. The influence of active species can be seen on results
of pH measurement on distilled water treated with gliding arc
reactors.
The geometry and dimensions of the main electrodes are
presented in figure 1 and in figure 2 are shown the placing of
air nozzle on GlidArc reactor without auxiliary electrodes
(figure 2, left side) and with auxiliary electrodes (figure 2,
right side).

I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, the interest of scientific community for
cold plasma discharges grown and the results can be seen on
different research areas, such as: bio-decontamination,
medicine and food security [1], surface treatment [2],
agriculture [3] or for hydrogen generation [4] etc.
An investigation about non-thermal plasma sources, their
advantages and domains where it has been used was
performed by Morgane Moreau [5].
Since the gliding arc (GlidArc) principle was patented in
1988, this device has evolved in time [6], but only with main
electrodes. Now, next step is an easy control of main Fig. 1. The shape and dimensions of the main electrodes for gliding arc
discharge and the simplest way for this is to use auxiliary reactor.
electrodes managed by a microcontroller. Also, using
microcontrollers could improve some characterizations, such
as: power measurement of the discharge during the
experiments and automatic control for it, automatic control of
gas flow rate etc.
An electrical and optical characterization for gliding arc
discharge in air was conducted [7], for a gliding arc in
tornado. There were analyzed only the dependence of
discharge current and breakdown voltage with the gas flow
rate and the optical emission spectrum.
Also, there is a characterization of reactive species on a
gliding arc discharge, with different types of gases, such as:
O2, N2 and air [8].
Reference [9] explain very well the gliding arc behavior
and some experiments, including pH modification depending Fig. 2. The placing of air nozzle on gliding arc reactor without
on inner diameter of air nozzle prove that the influences of auxiliary electrodes (left side) and with auxiliary electrodes (right side),
where (right) 1 – air nozzle, 2 – main electrodes, 3 – auxiliary
active species depend on the velocity of gas. electrodes.
We want to complete characterization of a gliding arc
discharge with temperature of electrodes and temperature The main electrodes were connected to a high voltage
depending on the distance, with air flow. transformer Fart (output electrical characteristics: U = 10 kV,
I = 100 mA) with a fast dropping out characteristic u(i).
The auxiliary electrodes were connected to a car ignition
coil, controlled by Freescale MC9S12C32 microcontroller.

978-1-4673-1653-8/12/$31.00 '2012 IEEE 1397

 To measure the temperature we used MobIR M8 thermal III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
camera and all data were extracted with IRAnalyser, both of
them provided by Guide Infrared. 1. Temperature distribution
For temperature distribution, a glass tube with 5 mm outer The position of the glass tube for temperature
diameter was placed in the middle of the main electrodes, measurements is shown in figure 5.
starting with the edge of the electrodes that means on our
results 0 cm. All experiments were performed for a 2 minutes
time period. The distance between edge of electrodes and
substrate (wood) was about 12.5 cm.
For electrodes temperature, measurements were conducted
on the edge of electrodes and on the area of electrodes; all
measurement had 5 minutes time period.
The air flow rates have been between 5 l/min and 15 l/min
and it was measured with MMA24 flow meter, provided by
Dwyer.
The influence of active species can be seen on results of pH
measurement on distilled water treated with both types of
reactors, with and without auxiliary electrodes, for 5 minutes
time period; at every 30 seconds we measured the pH. The
distance between edge of electrodes and treated surface was
about 10 cm. On all cases 100 ml of distilled water were
treated. Also, were performed experiments with distilled Fig.5. Placing of the glass tube to measure the temperature distribution.
water dish covered with pure glass, to prove that all the The dependence of the discharge temperature on the
changes are because of active species and not because of the distance and air flow are presented in figure 6 for gliding arc
UV light. reactor without auxiliary electrodes and in figure 7 for gliding
All the pH measurements were performed with HI 98103 arc reactor with auxiliary electrodes is presented.
pH Checker, provided by HANNA Instruments.
In figure 3 is shown dependence of command for auxiliary
electrodes, with 50 Hz power grid synchronizing; the pulse
for auxiliary electrodes was about 2 ms, starting with zero-
crossing of the voltage. This measurement was performed
with Tektronix TDS210 oscilloscope.

Fig. 6. Temperature distribution depending on distance and airflow for

gliding arc reactor without auxiliary electrodes.

Fig. 3. Auxiliary electrodes command (2) depending on zero crossing

detector for 50 Hz power grid (1).
A comparison between GlidArc discharge without and with
auxiliary electrodes can be seen on figure 4.

Fig. 7. Temperature distribution depending on distance and airflow for

gliding arc reactor with auxiliary electrodes.

Fig. 4. Comparison of GlidArc discharges , for 10 l/min air flow:

without auxiliary electrodes – left side, with auxiliary electrodes – right
side.

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 About temperature distribution presented in figures 6 and 7 electrodes area are shown in fire 13 for gliding arc without
we can say that for high air flow rate, the temperature is more auxiliary electrodes and in figure 14 for gliding arc with
stable on GlidArc reactor with auxiliary electrodes. auxiliary electrodes.
An interesting comparison for temperature distribution is
for 10 l/min airflow, as you can see on figure 8; it seems that
10 l/min is the junction area between continuous decrease of
temperature and stable temperature area.

Fig. 11. Electrode’s edge temperature for gliding arc reactor without
auxiliary electrodes.

Fig. 8. Comparison for temperature distribution at 10 l/min, where ME

– only main electrodes, ME+AE – main and auxiliary electrodes

2. Temperature of electrodes
The boundaries to measure temperature on the edge of
electrodes and of the electrodes can be seen on figures 9 and
10.

Fig. 12. Electrode’s edge temperature for gliding arc reactor with
auxiliary electrodes.

Fig. 9. Boundary for measuring the temperature of electrode’s edge.

Fig. 13. Electrode’s temperature for gliding arc reactor without

auxiliary electrodes.
It can be observed on the electrode edge that for 7.5 l/min

Fig. 10. Boundary for measuring the temperature of electrode’s area.

Temperature for edge of electrodes can be seen in figure 11
for reactor without auxiliary electrodes and in figure 12 for
reactor with auxiliary electrodes. Also, temperature for

Fig. 14. Electrode’s temperature for gliding arc reactor with auxiliary
electrodes.

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air flow, GlidArc reactor with auxiliary electrodes have a
higher temperature (more than 10˚C). This could be because
of the distance between electrodes or because of the geometry
of electrodes.
On the other side, for high flow rate (12.5 l/min and 15
l/min), the temperature is stabilized after 4 minutes of
discharge.
3. Treatment of distilled water
The results of pH for distilled water treatment are shown in
figure 15 (for GlidArc without auxiliary electrodes) and in
figure 16 (for GlidArc with auxiliary electrodes).
There are no special differences for pH decreasing between
the gliding arc reactors with and without auxiliary electrodes.
Fig. 15. pH results for distilled water treated with GlidArc without
auxiliary electrodes.
Results of the post-discharge stability of the pH value is
Fig. 16. pH results for distilled water treated with GlidArc with
auxiliary electrodes.
summarized in figure 17. After 10 days, for treatments with
low flows where no big differences, but for high flows the pH
decreased with 0.4 units.
Fig. 17. Post discharge effects for distilled water; ME – only main
electrodes, ME+AE – main and auxiliary electrodes.
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For pH we performed experiments for the same flow rates
with distilled water dish covered with quartz pure glass that
prevents penetration of UV light. The pH was stable and
means that all the changes are because of the species inside
plasma.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
The flow rate of air influences the temperature distribution,
temperature of electrodes and also the pH of distilled water
treated with the both type of GlidArc reactors.
Post discharge effect on distilled water is obvious greater
for high flow rates than low flow rates.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This paper was realized with the support of EURODOC
“Doctoral Scholarship for research performance at European
level” project, financed by the European Social Found and
Romanian Government.
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