Fractal Description of Electrical Discharges

The discharge propagation at the interface between gaseous and solid dielectrics exhibits different complex mechanisms depending not only on the physical properties of the investigated materials but also on the characteristics of the applied electrical stress. A full understanding of the discharge mechanism has not been achieved due to the not yet complete knowledge of the interface physics. A rather accurate description of the physical processes taking place during a surface discharge would, in fact, require the solution of a complicated coupled system composed of Poisson and transport equations together with suitable “constitutive” relations.