Evaluating the dielectric strength of promising SF6 alternatives by DFT calculations and DC breakdown tests

In this paper, a calculation method is proposed to predict the dielectric strength (DS) of gases and the DS of some promising SF
6
alternative gases and their mixtures is further evaluated by DC breakdown tests. The calculation method is based on the density functional theory (DFT), so that the DS of the gases can be obtained by only calculating their molecular parameters, including the average static electronic polarizability and adiabatic ionization energy. The paper also presents the DC breakdown strength of the C
4
F
7
N, C
5
F
10
O, and HFO-type gases, and it is found that the experimental DS values are in good agreement with the calculated values. In addition, DC breakdown tests for gas mixtures are also conducted and their synergistic effect is discussed in detail. The results show that the DS of C
4
F
7
N mixed gases is equivalent to that of pure SF
6
gas even under high pressures, indicating their potential applications in HV electrical equipment. The DS of C
5
F
10
O mixed gas is slightly lower than that of C
4
F
7
N mixed gas. Compared with CO
2
, mixing with air brings stronger synergistic effect in C
5
F
10
O and C
4
F
7
N in our experiment. The DS of HFO mixture is substantially less than that of SF
6
because of the weak synergistic effect when mixed with CO
2
or N
2
. This paper presents an effective method to evaluate DS of SF
6
alternative gases and the results are useful for their future engineering applications.