Study of the Thermodynamic Properties of Thermal Plasmas of Fluoroalkylamine-Air Mixtures

Knowledge of thermodynamic properties as well as parameters such as energy density and power flow isimportant for modeling thermal plasmas of fluoroalkylamine-air mixtures. In this paper, these thermodynamic properties of fluoroalkylamine-air mixture plasmas are calculated in a temperature range of 500 K to 20,000 K at atmospheric pressure and local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). The Gibbs free energy minimization method is used to determine the chemical equilibrium compositions of the plasmas that are needed to calculate the thermodynamic properties. These thermodynamic properties are then used to calculate the energy density and power flow of these plasmas. The variation of the energy density is related to the variations of the density and mass enthalpy. We notice that, this energy density increases with the percentage of air in the mixture for temperatures higher than 7000 K. The power flow, which depends also on density, enthalpy mass and sound speed, increases with the percentage of air in the same temperature range. Energy density and power flow results show that increasing air percentage in the mixture can be more interesting for damaging gaseous chemical species such as CF2, CO, HCN, and HF appearing at low temperatures with high concentrations.

Equilibrium Composition of a Plasma in the Low Voltage Air Circuit Breaker Contaminated by the Vapor of AgSnO2 Alloy Electrical Contacts

When the circuit breaker cuts the electric current, an electric arc is created between its electrodes. The success or failure of breaking the electric current by the circuit breaker depends strongly on the physico-chemical properties of the electric arc created, such as the composition of which depends on the material of the electrical contacts. In this work, we determine the equilibrium composition of the electric arc in the low voltage air circuit breaker with silver tin dioxide alloy contacts, in a temperature range from 500 K to 15,000 K and at atmospheric pressure. We use the Gibbs free energy minimization method and develop a computer code to determine the equilibrium composition of the created plasma. The analysis of the results obtained shows that O2 particles with a dissociation energy of 5.114 eV, NO with a dissociation energy of 6.503 eV, and N2 dissociation 9.756 eV dissociate around 3500 K, 5000 K, and 7500 K, respectively. We note that the electro-neutrality is established between the electrons and the cations: Ag+ and NO+, for temperatures lower than 6500 K. For temperatures higher than 6500 K, the electro-neutrality is established between the electrons and the cations: N+, O+, and Ag+. The numerical density of the electrons increases when the proportion of the vapor of the electrical contacts increases in the mixture, in particular for temperatures lower than 11,000 K.

Study of the Composition of a Plasma of Dry Air Contaminated by Al2O3, CO, Fe2O3 and SiO2

This paper concerns the calculation of equilibrium composition of plasma mixture Air Fe2O3, SiO2, Al2O3 and CO in temperatures range 1000 K to 6000 K. We supposed that the plasma is at atmospheric pressure and at local thermodynamic equilibrium (ETL). In the Saharan zone, the aerosols are proven from desert dust and biomass fires. They are essentially composed of oxides of silicon, calcium, iron, aluminum and carbonaceous elements from biomass. Thus, air circuit breakers often operate in a polluted environment without specific protection. They can have abnormal behaviors and failures of cuts. We used Gibbs free energy minimization method to access the different numerical densities of chemical species as a function of temperature. These data are very important to calculate thermodynamic properties, transport coefficients and modeling electrical arc in circuit breakers. The results show that the dust brings many particles which have low dissociation and ionization energies. This leads to an increase in metallic elements and a strong increase in the numerical density of electrons which could have a detrimental effect during the current cut-off phase with the increase in the electrical conductivity of the plasma.