A two-temperature kinetic model of SF6 plasma

Abstract

Studying the influence of thermal departures from equilibrium in SF6 circuit-breakers, we develop a two-temperature kinetic model to calculate the composition. Such a kinetic approach has not been adopted until now for SF6 plasma because of the complexity of chemical processes. Our model takes into account the collisional mechanisms responsible for the creation and disappearance of atoms and molecules through 19 species linked by 66 chemical reactions. To solve the conservation equations, the model uses the direct rates of reactions, that mainly proceed from the literature, and reverse rates, that are computed by two-temperature micro-reversibility laws. Thus, we point out the importance of the choice of the expression of Saha law, comparing Potapov and van de Sanden formulations of this law. We then discuss the impact of thermal departures from equilibrium on plasma composition, on `mean path' of molecules before dissociation in the plasma, and on the reactions that govern the disappearance of electrons.