Measurement of electrical conductivity of hot SF6-gas below 3000 kelvin

The electrical conductivity of SF₆ gas decays rapidly, in alternating current interrupters close to interruption, where the temperature of the gas reduces rapidly under the influence of either the thermal sinks, mixing of hot gas and cold gas, or by both mechanisms. In all conditions, the reduction in the gas temperature is responsible, to a great extent, for the decay in electrical conductivity of the gas. Data for the hot gas conductivity covering temperatures below 3000 K needs investigation to help the numerical analysis, carried out around these temperatures for applications like arc-circuit interaction. The paper presents a simple experimental approach for generating this important data by simulating the conditions of an interrupter in the laboratory, utilising a new conductivity probe