Numerical study on electron energy distribution characteristics and evolution of active particles of methanol-air mixture by non-equilibrium plasma

The extent of combustion enhancement by non-equilibrium plasma strongly depends on the electric field and electron number density. The electron energy distribution characteristics and evolution of active particles of methanol-air mixture by non-equilibrium plasma were numerical simulated. As an introductory work in this field, this study only partially cited other people’s data for comparative verification under without experimental validation data. The results showed that the electron energy distribution is mainly affected by field intensity. The electron energy distribution is increased with the increase of mean electron energy. The field intensity directly affects the formation and development of radicals in methanol-air plasma discharge. The generation of radicals in plasma discharge mainly occurs in the electron collision reaction with the electron energy of 3–10 eV. The concentration of excited states matter is higher than that of ionized states matter. The concentration of O radical is higher than the concentration of H and CH2OH, and then the concentration of H and CH2OH is much than that of OH and CH3. Considering the demand of radical concentration and economics of the peak pulse voltage, the field intensity of 220 Td - 400 Td is selected as a reasonable range for generating radicals.