Development of a thermally and chemically non-equilibrium model for decaying SF6 arc plasmas

This paper describes the development of a model with both chemically and thermally non-equilibrium effects in an SF₆ arc plasma during decaying phase with transient recovery voltage (TRV) application. The SF₆ arc plasma in decaying phase can be seen in a high voltage SF₆ gas circuit breaker during a large current interruption process. The TRV is often applied to the arc plasma, which may elevate the electron temperature T_e than heavy particle temperature T_h. This developed model solves energy equations for electrons and heavy particles, accounting for totally 122 reactions due to 19 species in SF₆ arc plasmas. As a result, transient distributions of T_e and T_h were calculated for SF₆ arc plasma in a TRV application condition for a fundamental study.