Interruption capability of CF/sub 3/I Gas as a substitution candidate for SF/sub 6/ gas

We studied the interruption performance of CF₃I gas because its environmental effect is smaller than that of SF₆ gas with a model arc-extinguishing chamber. First, we measured the arc time constant and arc power loss coefficient using Mayr's equation. Comparing CF₃I with other gases, the arc time constants are SF₆3I2< H₂2. The arc power loss coefficient is H₂>SF₆ >CO₂>Air>N₂ >CF₃I. Next, we evaluated the short line fault (SLF) interruption capability by measuring the di/dt-dv/dt characteristic. Consequently, the SLF interruption performance of pure CF₃I was about 0.9 times that of SF₆. However, CF₃I application to gas insulated switchgear (GIS) and gas circuit breakers (GCB) is difficult because the liquefying temperature of the gas is high. Therefore, we adopted a countermeasure to obtain a lower liquefying temperature mixing CF₃I with CO₂. The result showed that the SLF interruption performance of the mixture approximated that of pure CF₃I when the ratio of CF₃ I exceeds 20%