Study of Discharge Process and Characteristics of Discrete Water Droplets on the RTV Hydrophobic Surface in the Non-uniform Electric Field

According to simulating test on the model sample by using high speed digital camera (10000 fps) and combining with finite elements analysis software, this paper studies the discharge process of discrete water droplets on the hydrophobic surface in the non-uniform electric field ( needle-board electrodes ) and computes electric field intensity along hydrophobic surface. The results show that the development trend of the arc is stretching from the double ends to the intermediate on the RTV surface and obvious extinguishing and restriking phenomena can be observed. Furthermore, the paper compares electric field intensity along the RTV hydrophobic surface with no-droplet, one droplet and multi-droplets, and computes the maximum value of electric field intensity. It can be found that the maximum value of electric field intensity with the existence of droplets on the sample surface is 1.22-1.44 times as it without the existence of them in the non-uniform electric field.