Breakdown Electric Field of Hot 30% CF3I/CO2 Mixtures at Temperature of 300–3500 K During Arc Extinction Process**supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 10875093)

Abstract

We calculated the uniform dielectric breakdown field strength of residual 30% CF3I/CO2 gas mixtures during the arc extinction process over the temperature range 300–3500 K at 0.1 MPa. The limiting reduced field strengths are decided by a balance of electron generation and loss based on chemical reactions estimated by the electron energy distribution function (EEDF), which employs the Boltzmann equation method with two-term expanding approximation in the steady-state Townsend (SST) condition. During the insulation recovery phase, the hot CF3I/CO2 gas mixtures have maximum dielectric strength at a temperature of about 1500 K. At room temperature 300 K, the electric strength after arc extinction (90.3 Td, 1 Td=10−21 V·m2) is only 38% of the original value before arc (234.9 Td). The adverse insulation recovery ability of CF3I/CO2 gas mixtures in arc extinction hinders its application in electric circuit breakers and other switchgears as an arc quenching and insulating medium.