Simulation study on nitrogen vibrational kinetics in a single nanosecond pulse high voltage air discharge

We report a simulation study on nitrogen vibrational kinetics N2(X1Σg+,v=0−12) in a single nanosecond pulse high voltage discharge in dry-air at a pressure of 100 Torr. Apart from the usual processes such as vibrational-vibrational exchange and vibrational-translational relaxation, the state-specific vibrational kinetics take into account the electronic-vibrational (E-V) process and chemical-vibrational process. The vibrational kinetics, coupled with electron Boltzmann equation solver, plasma chemical kinetics, and gas thermal balance are used to model the 100 ns discharge and its subsequent 10 ms afterglow. The self-consistent model shows good agreement with recent experimental results, with regard to time-resolved vibrational and translational temperature. According to the modeling results, The E-V mechanism has a small but non-negligible effect (about 2%) in rising of vibrational quanta in the early afterglow from 100 ns to 1μs. Another possible reason is the convective transport associated with the gas dynamic expansion in time delays around 1μs to 10 μs.