Numerical study of the effect of water content on OH production in a pulsed-dc atmospheric pressure helium–air plasma jet

A numerical study of the effect of water content on OH production in a pulsed-dc atmospheric pressure helium–air plasma jet is presented. The generation and loss mechanisms of the OH radicals in a positive half-cycle of the applied voltage are studied and discussed. It is found that the peak OH density increases with water content in air (varying from 0% to 1%) and reaches 6.3×1018 m−3 when the water content is 1%. Besides, as the water content increases from 0.01% to 1%, the space-averaged reaction rate of three-body recombination increases dramatically and is comparable to those of main OH generation reactions.