Plasma properties and arc decaying characteristics of perfluoromethyl vinyl ether (C3F6O) as new eco-friendly arc quenching medium

Abstract

Perfluoromethyl vinyl ether (PMVE, C3F6O) has recently been identified as a new promising alternative to SF6. To obtain priori knowledge of the arc quenching ability of C3F6O mixtures, the arc plasma properties including particle composition, thermodynamic properties, transport coefficients and net emission coefficient (NEC) are calculated for C3F6O and its mixtures with N2 and CO2. The effects of buffer gases and pressure on these properties are analyzed. It is found that, C3F6O and its mixtures with N2 can recombine to their original forms without forming solid carbon deposits during arc extinction, a distinct advantage over common SF6 replacements like C4F7N and C5F10O. However, C3F6O–CO2 mixtures cannot return to their original form after arc quenching, regardless of CO2 proportion. Additionally, increasing CO2 content significantly reduces the electrical conductivity of the mixture, even below that of pure CO2. In contrast, N2 addition has minimal impact on the electrical conductivity and NEC of the C3F6O-N2 mixture. Using these plasma properties, a one-dimensional arc model based on the time-dependent Elenbaas–Heller equation is developed to analyze the arc decaying characteristics. The arc decay process is divided into two stages: thermal recovery and pre-dielectric recovery. It is concluded that pure C3F6O exhibits poor recovery performance, while mixtures with low buffer gas proportions demonstrate suboptimal recovery.

Publication
Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
Date