Dielectric recovery property measurements of CO<inf>2</inf> and air arcs under free recovery condition using power semiconductors

Abstract

This paper reports dielectric recovery property measurements of CO 2 and Air arcs under free recovery condition. In these measurements, the arc current and the voltage applied to the free recovery arcs were controlled with a high accuracy in time using power semiconductors. The recovery properties were measured by changing the application delay time t d of the recovery voltage with a peak of 8.2 kV. As a result, 200 L/min of CO 2 gas flow needs t d = 165 μs to withstand the quasi-TRV application with 50% probability of arc re-ignition; while 200 L/min of Air gas flow requires t d = 220 μ for the same purpose.