Speaker
Description
Recent work by our group, presented at ICOPS Denver and subsequently published[1], demonstrated an effect of temperature on the breakdown voltage in argon between two spherical electrodes at elevated pressure. Experiments in this work were done in a closed vessel, and the result was an augmentation in the breakdown voltage with increasing temperature for a given gas density. This result is in contrast with other previous work done to understand the origin of increased electrical discharge activity with increasing temperature in devices known as fission chambers[2], which contain ceramic insulators.
The present work aims to come to a more detailed understanding of the discharge activity in the fission chambers at elevated temperature by systematically investigating electrical breakdown at triple junctions using braised stainless steel-alumina junctions specifically constructed for this study.
The results of the experiments for breakdown at the triple junction comparing behaviour at ambient and elevated temperature will first be presented, followed by a discussion in light of a proposed mechanism.
- G. Galli et al., “Paschen’s Law in Extreme Pressure and Temperature Conditions,” IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, (2019).
- G. Galli et al., “Characterization and localization of partial-discharge-induced pulses in fission chambers designed for sodium-cooled fast reactors,” IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 65 (2018) 2412.
Work supported by the CEA (Alternative Energy and Atomic Energy Commission) in France and by the GeePs (Group of electrical engineering) laboratory in France.
