On the stem diameter under positive impulses in long air gaps

The diameter of a stem, a common origin point for streamers where the transition from the streamer to the leader takes place, has a significant effect on the simulation of streamer-to-leader transition. To measure the diameter of the stem, a schlieren system was established with the temporal and spatial resolutions of 5 μs and 70 μm, respectively. Experiments were conducted under positive lightning and switching impulses; the applied voltage, discharge current, and schlieren images were recorded synchronously. A method was proposed to measure the diameter of the stem based on the schlieren images, with which the stem diameter as a function of time was obtained. Moreover, the initial diameters of the stem under different conditions were obtained through the linear fitting. At last, a relation between the initial cross-sectional area of the stem and the discharge current was given within a certain range.