Optimization of Artificial Diffusion Stabilization Techniques and Corresponding Mesh Density Distribution in Drift Dominated Transport of Diluted Species

J. Jadidian[1], M. Zahn[1], N. Lavesson[2], O. Widlund[2], K. Borg[2]
[1]Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
[2]ABB Corporate Research, Västerås, Sweden
Published in 2012

This paper presents an optimized combination of artificial diffusion techniques to stabilize a drift dominated streamer discharge model which includes COMSOL Multiphysics’ Transport of Diluted Species modules for positive ion, negative ion, and electron charge densities, coupled through the Electrostatic module. A Thermal Conduction and Convection module is responsible for the heat transfer in the model. Optimal 2D axisymmetric and 3D mesh schemes are also introduced to effectively solve the numerical problem. Several combinations of streamline diffusions and Crosswind diffusion with different tuning parameters are applied to the charge continuity and the thermal equations with different mesh element size distributions to determine the ideal approach.