Dielectric recovery of a residual SF6 plasma between two parallel 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%