Numerical simulation on dynamics of spallation particles ejected from polyamide materials during irradiation of ar thermal plasma

Abstract

Dynamics behavior of the spallation particles ejected from polyamide was investigated both by experimental and numerical approaches. Polymer materials are widely used for gas flow nozzle in low-voltage or high-voltage circuit breakers. Effective utilization of such polymer ablation is expected to enhance the arc interrupting capability of the circuit breaker. In the experiment, the Ar induction thermal plasma was directly irradiated to polymer material such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyamide-66 (PA66) and polyamide-6 (PA6) fundamentally to study the interaction between the thermal plasma and the polymers. As a result, we found out that not only ablated vapor but also spallation particles were ejected from the polyamide materials surface from the experiment. A numerical model was developed on the behavior of spallation particles. Initial kinetic energy of spallation particles was estimated by numerical approaches.