Some Effects of Laminar and Turbulent Flow on Breakdown in Gases

T h e physics governing the breakdown of a stationary gas (no flow) has been discussed at great length by a number of authors. For some recent studies the interested reader is referred to a text by Brown 1 and papers by Buchsbaum 2 and by McDonald. 3 T h e effects of gas flow on breakdown has been studied experimentally for a laminar flow of less than 100 meters per second by Skinner and Brady 5 and for the case of laminar and turbulent flows by Buchsbaum and Cottingham. 4 Theoretically, the effects of gas flow can be studied by noting t h a t the transport of electrons and ions will depend on the flow as well as the laminar or turbulent diffusion. If the flow is laminar and t h e electron density such t h a t the diffusion is ambipolar, then the average d r i f t velocity of t h e electrons and ions are equal and given by v = -Da ( V n / n ) + V (1)