Observations of electric discharge streamer propagation and capillary oscillations on the surface of air bubbles in water

Abstract

The propagation of electric discharge streamers inside bubbles in liquids is of interest for the remediation of toxins in water and plasma-based surgical instruments. The manner of streamer propagation has an important influence on the production of reactive species that are critical to these applications. Streamer propagation along the surface of electrode-attached bubbles of air in water, previously predicted by numerical simulations, has been experimentally imaged using a fast frame-rate camera. The successive pulsing of the streamer discharge inside the bubbles produced oscillations along the air–water interface. Subsequent streamers were observed to closely follow surface distortions induced by such oscillations. The oscillations likely arise from the non-uniform perturbation of the bubble driven by the electric field of the streamer and were found to be consistent with Kelvin's equation for capillary oscillations. For a narrow range of applied voltage pulse frequencies, the oscillation amplitude increased over several pulse periods indicating, potentially, resonant behaviour. We also observed coupling between bubbles wherein oscillations in a second bubble without an internal discharge were induced by the presence of a streamer in a fixed bubble.