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Re: Arc length vs pwr
A quick comment on this:
I think arc length would have to obey a square law at least as
far as upping power is concerned. The longer the spark, the more
power dissipated along it both in maintaining ionization (width) and
length (series resistance). I think one further order of power loss
occurs in the gap when upping power levels. I do think though that
primary things can be tailored to reduce this loss - it will be
different for different gap systems in my opinion.
On the lumped vs distributed thing for the secondary: the more
top-C you have, the more lumped it gets as the secondary current
becomes uniform and hence 0.5LI^2 applies. That measure of magnetic
energy cannot apply in a distributed circuit as the current is not
uniform along the length of the coil. There would be (in my opinion)
an optimum top-C for a given secondary and bang size because several
things happen while increasing terminal capacitance: (1) the
secondary inductance is becoming more effective (Q increases), (2)
voltage holdoff is increasing (assuming more C = greater radius of
curvature (ain't necessarily so), and (3) output will eventually
decrease due to energy limitation. It would be jolly nice to quantify
this optimum R.O.C. and size.
On tuning: there is one subtlety I have used where Lp and Cp are
more-or-less fixed: raising and lowering the top terminal can
dramatically alter secondary fr.
fwiw,
Malcolm