Thermodynamic and Transport Properties of Ar Thermal Plasmas with Polymer Ablated Vapors and Influence of Their Inclusions on Plasma Temperature

Abstract

Thermodynamic and transport properties of Ar thermal plasmas with polymer ablated vapors at atmospheric pressure were calculated in temperature range up to 30000K on the assumption of thermal equilibrium condition. The polymers such as POM (polyoxymethylene), PE (polyethylene) and PMMA (polymethlmethacrylate) are being used in low-voltage circuit breakers or load-break switches as an insulation material and a wall material of arc quenching chamber. These polymers are ablated into the arc plasma during the arc interruption processes in the circuit breakers. The thermodynamic and transport properties are indispensable for the prediction of arc or thermal plasma simulation. The first order approximation of Chapman-Enskog method was adopted to derive the transport properties. The calculated thermodynamic and the transport properties were used to compute the temperature distributions of Ar induction thermal plasmas to investigate influence of the polymer ablated vapors on the thermal plasma temperature. It can be found out that PMMA vapor inclusion into Ar thermal plasmas decreases the thermal plasma temperature markedly compared with those of POM and PE, which indicates that the PMMA vapor has a higher plasma-quenching efficiency.