Thermal Decomposition of Cyclohexane by Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulations and its Relevance to Streamer Formation

Kinetic Monte Carlo was used to simulate the decomposition of cyclohexane at temperatures up to 10 000 K. Rate constants needed for the simulations were obtained from literature and combined with differences in Gibbs free energy between the reactants and products. The degree of decomposition and an approximate heat capacity for cyclohexane were combined with finite element analysis to find the initial radius of a newly formed streamer channel. The initial channel was found to be of the order of 0.05–0.1 µm, expanding to a few μm after relaxation.