Plasma‐quenching efficiency of ablated vapor of polymer containing nitrogen atoms using inductively coupled thermal plasma technique

The plasma‐quenching efficiency of the ablated vapor of polymers containing nitrogen atoms was numerically investigated by the inductively coupled thermal plasma technique. Polyamide66 (PA66), which contains nitrogen atoms, was used as a polymer material, and was injected into Ar thermal plasma in a numerical simulation. The simulation model considered heating, melting, and evaporation of polymer powders, and then plasma‐quenching phenomena due to polymer ablation. The thermodynamic and transport properties of the ablated vapor were also taken into account. It was found that PA66 vapor has a greater plasma‐quenching efficiency than other polymer materials of PTFE, POM, PMMA, and PE. The calculated results were confirmed to be valid by comparison with experimental results in terms of the ablated vapor distribution and powder velocities. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 178(2): 11–20, 2012; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.21185     

Numerical Simulation of Power Generation Characteristics of a Disk MHD Generator with High‐Temperature Inert Gas Plasma

The power generation characteristics of a disk magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) generator with high‐temperature inert gas (argon) plasma have been examined by a time‐dependent two‐dimensional numerical simulation. The numerical simulation results based on the experimental conditions show that the enthalpy extraction ratio (= electrical output power/thermal input) can reach above 10%, which surely supports the reasonability of the experimental results. Proper selection of working conditions, especially the inlet total gas temperature, is necessary, since the gas temperature dominantly determines the electrical conductivity in the generator, unlike the conventional seeded plasma MHD generator. It is also found that the plasma is not in the recombination process but in the ionization process, where the ionization degree moderately increases along the flow. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 179(3): 23–30, 2012; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.21237     

Thermodynamic and transport properties of CO2, CO2–O2, and CO2–H2 mixtures at temperatures of 300 to 30,000 K and pressures of 0.1 to 10 MPa

This paper provides the theoretical calculation results of thermodynamic and transport properties of CO₂, CO₂–O₂ mixture, CO₂–H₂ mixture under thermal equilibrium condition at temperatures of 300 to 30,000 K and at pressures of 0.1 to 10 MPa. The gas CO₂ is one of the candidates for the environmentally benign arc‐quenching medium in a circuit breaker. Furthermore, the effect of additional gases O₂ and H₂ on the thermodynamic and transport properties of CO₂ was also investigated in this paper. The hydrogen atom included CO₂ is similar to the polymer ablated vapor in switching devices. First, equilibrium compositions of CO₂, CO₂–O₂ mixture, CO₂–H₂ mixture were calculated through the Gibbs free energy minimization method. Second, thermodynamic properties were computed using the calculated composition. Finally, transport properties were calculated by the first‐order approximation of Chapman– Enskog method using the collision integrals between species. Inclusion of H₂ increases the electrical conductivity of CO₂ in the range 3000 to 6000 K because CHO molecules produced in this temperature range emit more electrons due to the lower ionization potential of CHO. It also increases the thermal conductivity of CO₂ especially due to dissociation reactions of H₂ around 3900 K and ionization of H around 15,000 K. These properties provided here can be used for CO₂ thermal plasma simulation. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 163(4): 18–29, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience. wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20467     

Thermodynamic,transport and radiation properties of high-temperature CF3I and transient conductance of residual arc sustained in axial CF3I flow

The present paper reports fundamental properties of CF₃I under high-temperature conditions to find out the usefulness of CF₃I as an arc-quenching gas. Firstly, particle compositions of CF₃I were theoretically calculated in a temperature range from 300 to 30 000 K. Secondly, thermodynamic, transport and radiation properties of the CF₃I were also obtained for pressures 0.1–1.0 MPa. Finally, the transient process of a conductance of a residual arc in CF₃I was derived to compare with those in other arc-quenching gases. In addition, an arc extinguishing capability of CF₃I in a thermal re-ignition region was derived to find out whether CF₃I shows a higher capability than CO₂, N₂ and air. © 2006 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A Numerical Study of Plasma-Particle Heat Transfer Dynamics in Induction Thermal Plasmas for Glassification

Dependence of energy exchange between plasma and soda-lime-silica glass particles on the particle size, powder feed-rate and nozzle insertion length during in-flight thermal treatment for glassification by induction thermal plasmas has been studied. For the numerical investigation into the plasma-particle energy exchange dynamics during melting and vaporization of particles, a thermofluid plasma-particle interaction model has been developed taking into account the strong plasma-particle interactions and particle loading effects. It is found that heat transfer to the particles depends strongly on the particles' size, powder feed-rate, nozzle insertion length, and plasma discharge parameters. Thus, for the efficient thermal treatment of particles, the above parameters should be optimized. © 2009 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

W-Cu触头材料的电寿命研究

研究了W-Cu系列触头材料的电弧烧损规律。触头材料的电弧烧损随开断次数的变化分为老炼、稳定和失效三个阶段，其中稳定阶段的长短是影响电寿命的决定性因素。还发现蚀头材料的电弧烧损主要是触点在断开和闭合的过程中，产生电弧或其它放电现象的热效应所造成的。材料的比热容、密度、熔点和电导率决定触头的电寿命。     

不同产气材料对电弧运动规律影响的实验研究

对低压断路器灭弧室内侧壁的非产气材料、迭尔林和尼龙进行了相关的实验,揭示了不同聚合体产气材料对空气电弧运动规律的影响。在电弧向灭弧栅片运动的过程中,聚合体材料受到电弧的烧蚀,灭弧室内充满空气和聚合体蒸汽的混合气体。建立了灭弧室实验模型,给出了大电流电弧的实验线路,并在500A和3000A电流时进行了电弧实验。研究结果表明,灭弧室内压力增大,加速电弧等离子体的运动速度,可有效提高断路器的性能。     

Measurement of the radial temperature distribution in the central part of an arc burning through a polyethylene tube

The radial temperature distributions in the central part of arcs burning through polyethylene (PE) tubes are estimated by measuring the half-width of Hα line spectrum and using the electron density versus Stark half-width and the electron density versus temperature characteristics. Estimation is carried out for various tube inner diameters (2 and 4 mm) and dc arc currents (5, 10 and 15 A). The result shows that the temperature at the arc center is around 10,000 K, and it tends to increase as the tube inner diameter becomes narrow and/or the arc current increases. The overall temperature distributions from the arc axis to the tube wall are obtained by combining these inner temperature distributions with outer temperature distributions which have been derived from C₂ spectra. They are found to take a form of typical two-temperature distributions of ablation stabilized arcs. The electric field strengths of PE arcs are evaluated from the temperature distributions and the electrical conductivity versus temperature characteristics of thermally decomposed polyethylene vapor gas. The results agree well with experimental values.     

Application of Thermal Analysis for Clarification of Degradation Characteristics of Silicone Rubber Exposed to Partial Arc Discharge

To investigate the temperature distribution on the surface of a silicone rubber exposed to partial arc discharges, numerical analyses on thermal characteristics were carried out. The preliminary calculations indicated that there was no dependence of mesh and time step. The temperature on the specimen surface became high in the middle of the discharge gap while those at points of contact between an arc discharge and tips of glass-filter paper used as electrodes became low. The thermal diffusion from the points of contact between the arc discharge and the tips of glass-filter paper into electrolyte electrodes caused the temperature decrease at such points. Copyright © 2009 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

灭弧室结构对交流接触器电寿命影响的试验研究

介绍了接触器的灭弧原理及方式,分析了交流接触器灭弧室结构及有效排气孔面积对电寿命的影响。以框架为150A接触器的灭弧室结构为例,对3个样机进行AC-4电寿命试验,试验结果表明对于同电流框架的接触器,其灭弧室结构对电寿命影响至关重要,且在满足电气间隙和爬电距离时,有效排气孔面积越大,电寿命次数越大。     

考虑电极烧蚀影响的低压断路器电弧运动特性仿真及实验

以磁流体动力学(magnetic hydro-dynamics,MHD)为基础建立了考虑电极烧蚀影响的低压断路器中电弧的数学模型。在传统的质量、动量和能量守恒方程的基础上增加了铜蒸气的浓度方程,考虑电极烧蚀对气体的热动力学特性和传输系数的影响,针对阴极和阳极不同特点分别建立了电弧与阴极和阳极作用的数学模型。利用基于有限容积法的商业软件对上述模型进行求解,得出灭弧室内温度场、浓度场、气流场、电位场的分布情况。仿真结果表明,由于电极附近“双漩涡”的存在,使得Cu蒸气浓度最大的区域位于弧根后方靠近电极的区域;考虑Cu蒸气影响时计算得到的电弧电压为比未考虑Cu蒸气影响时减小12.3%;考虑Cu蒸气影响所得到的电弧平均运动速度比未考虑Cu蒸气影响时减少21.3%。实验结果验证了仿真模型的合理性。     

Metal Vapor Behavior in GTA Welding of a Stainless Steel Considering the Marangoni Effect

A gas tungsten arc in helium was modeled taking into account the contamination of the plasma by metal vapor from the weld pool. The whole region of gas tungsten arc atmosphere including the tungsten cathode, arc plasma and weld pool was treated using a unified numerical model. The anode was of a low sulfur stainless steel or a high sulfur stainless steel. A viscosity approximation was used to express the diffusion coefficient in terms of viscosity of shielding gas and metal vapor. The transient two-dimensional distributions of the temperature, velocity of plasma flow and iron vapor concentration were predicted, together with the weld penetration at the atmospheric pressure. The distribution of the iron vapor is obviously different between the case of a low sulfur stainless steel anode and the case of a high sulfur stainless steel anode. © 2009 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

一种用于大功率电弧加热器的等离子电弧模型

基于著名的电弧黑金模型--麦也尔电弧模型(Mayr arc model)和克西电弧模型(Cassie arc model),提出了一种改进的等离子电弧模型.在原模型基础上,丰富了电弧模型参数,使模型不仅能反映大功率直流电弧加热器稳定工作时的电气特性,还能反映加热器工作时弧室中气流量变化对电弧的影响.本文还对麦也尔电弧模...     

基于磁流体动力学的35 kV自脱离防雷装置灭弧仿真

为研究影响基于气吹灭弧原理的自脱离防雷装置灭弧的影响因素,文中基于磁流体动力学理论建立装置灭弧过程的数值仿真模型,研究电流初始相角与装置气流速度峰值对装置熄弧性能的影响,并结合大电流燃弧试验验证模型有效性。研究结果表明,自脱离防雷装置灭弧时间与工频电流初始相角密切相关,在0°～180°电角度区间内,电弧熄灭所需时间随工频电流初始相角的增大而减小。装置气流速度峰值对电弧熄灭具有决定性作用。当灭弧气流速度峰值高于243 m/s时,装置可在半个工频周期内有效熄灭电弧并防止重燃;灭弧气流速度峰值低于243 m/s时,在装置产气灭弧筒出口处将出现“电弧堵塞”现象导致电弧重燃。研究结论可为气吹防雷装置灭弧性能优化提供理论依据。     

低压交流电线故障电弧模型研究

研究低压交流电线故障电弧模型,对检测低压交流电线故障电弧很必要。文中对Schavemaker模型进行理论分析并进行简化。利用MATLAB软件构建电弧模型,对简化的Schavemaker模型和Mayr模型进行仿真比较,分析简化的Schavemaker模型仿真得出的电弧电流具有更明显的电弧电流零休区,较高di/dt和奇次谐波幅值。最后进行串行和并行电弧实验,实测波形和仿真波形进行比较,验证了仿真结论。结果证明简化的Schavemaker模型适用于低压交流电线故障电弧模型研究。     

低压断路器中空气电弧运动的仿真及实验研究

以磁流体动力学(MHD)为基础建立了三维空气电弧等离子体在外部磁场作用下运动时的数学模型。考虑到阴极和阳极各自的特点,提出了更加合理的电流分布边界条件;采用一种与电弧等离子体自身电导率密切相关的方法确定电弧的弧根位置。利用基于有限容积法的商业软件对上述模型进行求解,并利用高速数字摄像机进行了相关的实验,对仿真结果进行验证,充分证明模型的有效性,揭示了空气电弧在外部磁场作用下,在低压断路器的灭弧室中的运动规律,并指出压力波在灭弧室中的传播和反射是产生这种运动规律的原因。此外,对阴极喷流所形成的双漩涡和电弧等离子体后部的“尾巴”这2种物理现象进行了详细的描述。     

考虑器壁侵蚀影响的低压断路器电弧运动特性仿真及实验

以磁流体动力学(MHD)为基础建立了考虑器壁侵蚀影响的低压断路器中的电弧的数学模型.在传统的质量、动量和能量守恒方程的基础上增加了器壁材料的浓度方程,考虑了器壁材料的烧蚀对气体的热动力学特性和传输系数的影响,并且采用"视角因数法"计算到达器壁的辐射能量.利用基于有限容积法的商业软件对上述模型进行求解,得出灭弧室内温度场、浓度场、气流场的分布情况以及电压随时间的变化过程.仿真结果表明,由于灭弧室内"漩涡"的存在使得电弧后方的聚合物蒸气浓度大于电弧前方的聚合物蒸气浓度;由于产气材料的影响,电弧的最大电压增加了19.2%;产气材料对电弧运动有加速作用,由于产气材料的影响,电弧的平均运动速度增加了20.1%.实验结果验证了仿真模型的合理性.     

Dielectric recovery of a residual SF6 plasma between twoparallel plane electrodes

The present work is a theoretical investigation into the dielectric strength of a thin column of hot SF₆ gas left between two contacts after the thermal quenching of an arc at current zero in a modern HV gas-blast circuit breaker. Because of time rapid decay of arc temperature during current zero, this hot gas is still in a plasma state (referred to as the residual plasma) with sufficiently high charge density (both electrons and ions) although electrical conductivity is low. The dielectric recovery of such a residual plasma differs from that of an infinitely large, uniform plasma in two aspects. Firstly, the presence of space charge can distort severely the local electric field and can influence strongly the generation and loss of charged particles by ionization and chemical reactions. Secondly, due to the finite size of the plasma column, electrons diffuse in an ambipolar manner, thus enhancing the loss of charged particles in the plasma. In the present investigation, the gap length between the contacts (electrodes) is 1.0×10^-2 m and the diameter of the plasma column varies between 50×10^-6 and 500×10 ^-6 m. Distribution of the number density of charged species on the axis is obtained by solving their continuity equations using the method of MacCormack with Shuman filter. It is found that formation of space charge creates strong ionization layers close to the electrodes and that the whole column could deviate from electrical neutrality due to the drift of charged particles. The breakdown field of such a bounded plasma at atmospheric pressure or above is approximately equal to the critical field for an infinite plasma within a numerical uncertainty of 5%     

Numerical Calculation of Electrical Conductivity of Porous Electroceramics

A numerical method for the calculation of the electrical conductivity of porous ceramics for gas sensing applications is developed, which takes into account detailed microstructural features by mapping a mesoscopic irregular resistor network onto the microstructure. The overall conductance of the ceramic sample is obtained by solving the Kirchhoff equations for the irregular network using an efficient iterative algorithm. The method is designed to handle the widely varying conductivities of different microstructural components present in ceramic gas sensors. The evolution of the macroscopic conductance of the model systems during a phase field simulation of sintering is obtained and several characteristic stages are distinguished. The potential applications of the method in computer aided microstructural optimization for ceramic gas sensors is discussed.     

冲击电弧作用下C4F7N/CO2混合气体灭弧性能仿真分析[1]

为了探讨C4F7N/CO2混合气体的灭弧能力,根据电弧能量平衡理论,建立电弧能量平衡方程组,获取管道内部超压随时间的变化规律。同时,基于磁流体动力学模型,文中使用COMSOL Multiphysics软件建立了二维的气吹灭弧结构,在雷电流幅值为4kA的条件下,对不同比例的混合气体在冲击电弧作用下的熄弧特性进行仿真分析,仿真结果表明:比例为20%C4F7N/80%CO2、10%C4F7N/90%CO2、5%C4F7N/95%CO2的混合气体在观测点1的峰值速度分别为:1654.16m/s、1612.25m/s、1111.72m/s。结合电弧的能量平衡理论分析了在模型中电导率、速度以及压强的变化规律,与理论结果对比分析得出:在同一工况条件下20%C4F7N/80%CO2的灭弧性能较优,同时符合气吹灭弧的要求。