The Time-Dependent Electric Current from a Flame

An earlier static treatment of the electric current from the diffusion flame in a flame ionization detector has been extended to include time-dependent currents. The nonlinear differential equation describing the electric field in the space outside the flame has been solved analytically for a class of problems in which a time-dependent potential difference is switched on after a static current has been established. Both one- and two-dimensional geometrical configurations are considered. The results could be useful in suggesting new experiments on flame ionization detectors.