Original Article

Analytical thermal model for cylindrical DBD reactors: how to obtain a reliable gas temperature distribution, and why is it so important

LAPLACE Laboratory, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse INP, CNRS, 2 rue Charles Camichel, F-31071 Toulouse, France

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Received: 19 December 2025
Accepted: 9 June 2026
Published online: 14 July 2026

Abstract

We present a compact analytical thermal model for coaxial dielectric barrier discharge reactors, providing reliable gas-temperature estimates for system-level analysis and design of non-thermal plasma processes; NOₓ abatement is the target of the presented experimental validations. Gas temperature has a major impact on most chemical treatments and is a critical parameter for plasma kinetic solvers (ZdPlaskin in our case for NOₓ abatement efficiency evaluation). Our model couples a volumetric heat source (plasma power deposition) to heat transfer by conduction, convection, and radiation. We validate it experimentally by comparisons across a wide range of power and flow between predicted gas temperatures and measured rotational temperatures obtained from optical emission spectroscopy and between calculated surface temperatures and measured ones obtained by infrared thermography. The model captures very well the main trends and provides temperature estimates with good agreement to the experimental measures. We discuss how the model parameters and outputs can be exported for integration into global chemical kinetics simulations and system-level studies of NOₓ abatement, or any other gas treatment.