Investigation on nanosecond surface sliding discharge in a supersonic airflow with oblique shock wave

We report investigations of the nanosecond surface sliding discharge in supersonic airflows with the oblique shock wave at Mach numbers of the flow 1.30-1.60 in shock tube. We show that the surface sliding discharge developed in flows as a single channel located near a zone of interaction of the oblique shock with the boundary layer on the wall of the channel. A pulse voltage of 25 kV powered the discharge; the electric current was of 1 kA. The electron concentration in the localized discharge channel was (0.7-1.4).1015 cm-3 and the electron energy was of 1.8-2.2 eV from the analysis the emission spectra. High-speed flow field shadowgraphy after the surface sliding discharge showed that the localized discharge channel generates a strong shock wave, leading to restructuring the shock-wave structure of the flow within ∼100 μs and subsequent relaxation to a stationary configuration.