ISSN: 0090-3973
Page Count: 7

Nonintrusive Test for Argon Gas Content in Windows: Feasibility Study
Latta, BM
Associate, Assistant, and Assistant Professor, Acadia University, Nova Scotia

Bogan, L
Associate, Assistant, and Assistant Professor, Acadia University, Nova Scotia

Wagner, GS
Associate, Assistant, and Assistant Professor, Acadia University, Nova Scotia

(Received 21 May 1990; accepted 26 October 1990)

Abstract

The objective was to find a nonintrusive technique for determining the gas content of an insulated glass window unit. During this study, first measurements of the electric breakdown field for air-argon mixtures were obtained. The breakdown field does not depend strongly on whether the electrodes are plain window glass or glass with low emissivity coatings, nor does it depend on the glass electrode spacing. Our reported strong variation of the breakdown field with admixtures of air to the argon gas suggests that this approach could provide an inexpensive nonintrusive gas analysis for insulated glass window units with an ultimate precision of 0.1% on the argon content.

Keywords:
argon, gas, window, electric, discharge, spark, break-down, field, potential

Paper ID: JTE12559J
DOI: 10.1520/JTE12559J
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