Open Access

Daniel Kotschate

• Due to the multi-physical appearance of gas discharges the possibilities of interaction with their surrounding environment are very wide. Some of the most common applications are surface or material modification, light sources and electric propulsion. Since atmosphere pressure plasma generate a huge amount of thermal energy caused by collisions in the sheath, this temperature alternation is also able to produce acoustic waves in the ambient gas volume (as lightning and thunder). The plasma-chemical interaction provides the most significant Impact to the generated heat and electro-hydrodynamic force, detectable by acoustic sensors. This contribution gives an overview of experimental acoustic analysis of diffuse coplanar surface dielectric barrier discharges and provides a basic physical straight-forward model. In addition to the characterization, possible applications (e.g. plasma acoustic loudspeaker or transducer for air-coupled ultrasonic testing) concerning these discharge typesDue to the multi-physical appearance of gas discharges the possibilities of interaction with their surrounding environment are very wide. Some of the most common applications are surface or material modification, light sources and electric propulsion. Since atmosphere pressure plasma generate a huge amount of thermal energy caused by collisions in the sheath, this temperature alternation is also able to produce acoustic waves in the ambient gas volume (as lightning and thunder). The plasma-chemical interaction provides the most significant Impact to the generated heat and electro-hydrodynamic force, detectable by acoustic sensors. This contribution gives an overview of experimental acoustic analysis of diffuse coplanar surface dielectric barrier discharges and provides a basic physical straight-forward model. In addition to the characterization, possible applications (e.g. plasma acoustic loudspeaker or transducer for air-coupled ultrasonic testing) concerning these discharge types are presented.…