High-Pressure Plasmas

The main research area of the High-Pressure Plasmas Group is low-temperature plasma science, including plasma processes relevant to electrical power equipment. The focus of research of the group is interaction of high-pressure plasmas with electrodes, in particular, near-electrode phenomena in arc plasmas and sheaths and self-organization on electrodes of discharges of different types, where the group is a recognized international authority. The principal research tools are theoretical methods of plasma physics and chemistry, fluid dynamics, nonlinear physics, and kinetic theory, asymptotic methods, and numerical modelling. Funding for the group in 2015-2019 was provided by application-oriented fundamental-research projects funded by industry (Siemens Corporate Technology, Germany; Schneider Electric, France), project PlasMa (European Regional Development Fund), IPFN (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), and project PTDC/FIS-PLA/2708/2012 of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.

Group Leader: Mikhail Benilov

Left: COST-529 standard lamp (Philips). Right: DBD for biomedical applications

Spots and patterns on cathodes of glow and arc discharges: comparing the theory and the experiment

Objectives

To develop self-consistent theory and modeling methods of arc discharges including electrodes. This is a topic of high scientific interest and highly important for applications of arc discharges
To develop a theory and modeling methods for self-organization in near-electrode regions of gas discharges with cold electrodes. Self-organized patterns have been observed in virtually all types of discharges: DC glows, RF, coronas, DBD, magnetron discharges and are of very high scientific interest and potential importance for applications

Contacts

Mikhail Benilov, Group Leader:

benilov at staff.uma.pt