Abstract The glow discharge is the basis of conventional techniques used to improve the tribological properties of materials, such as the generation of thin films using ionic beams and the sputtering process for the treatment of surfaces. This work focuses on the numerical study of the glow discharge in a system composed of a cylindrical quartz chamber containing argon gas, whose length and radius are 20 cm and 2.5 cm, respectively. Said chamber is limited by two copper electrodes whose potentials are 0 V (Anode) and -500 V(Cathode), respectively. In order to analyze this time-independent discharge, the generation of secondary electrons allowing the discharge to be self-sustained as well as the manifestation of fixed regions, among others, numerical modeling is carried out by using the Plasma Module of COMSOL Multiphysics software. The presented results in this paper can be useful to understand, design and build new technologies focused on the area of treatment of surfaces.