Special Issue on Numerical Modelling of Low‐Temperature Plasmas for Various Applications – Part I: Review and Tutorial Papers on Numerical Modelling Approaches

Low-temperature plasmas are used for a growing number of applications. To improve these applications, a good insight in the underlying plasma processes is indispensable. This insight can be obtained by experimental research, but also by computer modelling. Several different modelling approaches exist in literature for describing low-temperature plasmas, and the type of modelling approach that is most suitable for a certain application will depend on the plasma operating conditions (e.g., pressure, power, dimensions, gas temperature) and the type of information requested (e.g., information on the breakdown and maintenance of the discharge, on the non-equilibrium behaviour of electrons / ions or on the detailed chemical kinetics of the heavy species). This special issue of Plasma Processes and Polymers aims to give an overview of the variousmodelling approaches that can be used to describe the plasma behaviour, as well as of closely related topics, such as model verification and validation, modelling of plasma-surface interactions and input data for the models. Furthermore, several examples of modelling efforts in various application fields are demonstrated. The special issue contains 31 papers in total, divided in two parts,with each part organized as a double issue. Part I, presented here, contains all reviewand tutorial papers. It was indeed our intention to cover the different modelling approaches in tutorial-like review papersthatprovideagoodintroduction to the field for starting PhD students. Roughly speaking, twomajor groups of numerical modelling approaches to describe the plasma behaviour can be