Backbreakdown phenomenon in low current discharge at atmospheric pressure in transversal flow

One of the main challenges of modern plasma chemistry is to develop a powerful and high pressure discharge generating a non equilibrium cold plasma for chemical applications. Intermediate discharges between hot quasi equilibrium plasma and cold non equilibrium plasma are subjected to a new interest. For various applications, the behaviour of the discharge is determined mainly by processes of high temperature column of plasma interaction with cold gas flow. It means that hydrodynamic processes play a significant role and strong interaction of high temperature discharge with cold,gas flow must be taken into account. In order to study such an interaction we performed experiments in which anode and cathode spots remained fixed at the tips of electrodes. In these conditions it is very easy to determine the characteristics of the discharge motion. One of most important experimental result is the so called: back-breakdown phenomenon. Then it is possible to express the motion of the discharge as a function physical parameters of the ionised gas. A simple model of interaction is introduced which allows a better understanding of various chemical reactors.