Analysis of different modeling approaches for simulation of glow discharge in helium at atmospheric pressure

One-dimensional numerical models of a direct current atmospheric pressure glow discharge in helium are developed and examined. The models use a fluid description of charged and neutral particles and a drift-diffusion approximation for particle fluxes. The effects of plasmachemical models, the form of the electron energy distribution function (Maxwellian vs non-Maxwellian), the energy loss due to gas heating and the width of the gas gap on the discharge characteristics are analyzed. The performance of different modeling approaches is examined by superimposing computed current–voltage characteristic (CVC) curves with each other and with measured and computed CVCs available in the literature.