Modeling the electrical behavior of fluorescent lamps on the basis of a self-consistent collisional-radiative model

Due to the highly complex nature of fluorescent lamp discharge, its electrical behavior and interaction with ballast can only be fully investigated and understood in the framework of a self-consistent model. Collisional-radiative modeling provides the capability to describe in details the microscopic reactions in the discharge on the basis of three groups of continuity equations: particle balance, electron energy and gas temperature. This paper discusses the formulation of these equations and later applies them to modeling the lamp's electrical behavior in a ballast environment. Prototypes of the conventional magnetic ballast and half-bridge LCC inverter ballast were constructed to verify the model accuracy. The self-consistency of the model has enabled the computer design of lamp ballast for any given lamp parameters, that is: lamp radius, wall temperature, buffer gas pressure, power supply voltage or current, frequency and power.