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Re: Skin Effect & Primary Current?



Tesla List wrote:
> 
> >From MALCOLM-at-directorate.wnp.ac.nzTue Jul 23 22:02:49 1996
> Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 12:59:22 +1200
> From: Malcolm Watts <MALCOLM-at-directorate.wnp.ac.nz>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Re: Skin Effect & Primary Current?
> 
> Hi all,
>         Thought I'd post some measurements I did awhile back on my
> coil for the benefit of those who didn't see them. Both these figures
> include shunting losses in the ferro concrete floor.
> Measured AC resistance including gap was close to 0.95 Ohms, measured
> resistance without the gap was 0.22 Ohms. I know the gap R is
> non-linear, but this was the figure calculated from the captured
> decrementing wave (which incidentally was far from being linear as
> some publications state). The primary is 3/8" Cu pipe. The cap is
> one of my homebuilt extended foil models.
> 
> Malcolm


Malcolm,

How did you capture the damped wave?  You should have a good calibrated 
Rogowski coil and mesure the exact peak current for a true idea of the 
spark gaps actual resistance which in most tela circuits amounts to as 
much as ten ohms!  The more normal value is 1-4 ohms.  Arcs of the low 
value you measured are usually not normally encountered until the current 
is over ten thousand amps.  The decrement is, indeed, used to calculate a 
number of loss factors in an LC circuit, but without a very accruate 
value of peak current it would be tough to use. The ultimate would be to 
get a current transformer reading as well as a second channel voltage 
reading across the gap and integrate the two to yeild the actual power 
loss and resisatance of the gap over time.

Richard Hull, TCBOR