Investigating R&D committee on fundamental technologies of arc and glow discharges

An arc and a glow discharges are widely used for a lot of industry applications, for instance, for current interruption, disposal of hazardous wastes and heating to a certain target. These applications are based on fundamental technologies related to the arc and glow discharges. On this background, the present expert-committee has consisted of members who played important roles in the fields of the arc and glow discharges and has made active investigations on the fundamental technologies of these discharges. The present report describes the investigation results summarized by this committee: (1) utilizations of discharge characteristics such as heat, radiation and electrically conductive; (2) new discharge formations such as an atmospheric pressure glow discharge; (3) discharge modeling and (4) measurement method developed in recent years. In addition to (1)-(4), this report also proposes to reconsider the definition of the terms of the arc and glow discharges, after making discussions on many scientific terms used recently in the discharge fields.