Porous materials instead of solid ones are planned to be used as high voltage insulations to reduce weight. Due to non-ideal compositions cavities inside the insulation material may lead to discharges. These discharges are called microplasmas or partial discharges.
Analytic approximation for modelling of the discharge processes can be very complex even in simple cavities. Thus, for detailed analysis numerical simulations are required. In this work a three dimensional plasma simulation tool based on the Particle-in-Cell Monte-Carlo method (PIC-MC) is used. The applicability of PIC-MC simulations for small single cavities at atmospheric pressure has been shown previously [1,2]. Subsequently, asymmetric propagation behaviour was revealed by PIC-MC for multiple cavities, aligned in series with respect to the field vector [3].
In contrast, this work analyses the microplasmapropagation in multi cavity arrangements, which are aligned in parallel. Two scenarios are investigated: One with two separated cavities and one with an opening allowing particle transfer. Thus, the interactions between two cavities solely by electric field influence and via additional charge transfer are compared.
