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Re: IMPORTANT: RESEARCH ON WHAT?

Tesla List wrote:
> 
> Original Poster: "Marco Denicolai"<Marco.Denicolai-at-tellabs.fi>
> 
> From: Marco Denicolai-at-MARTIS on 23.11.98 09:10
> 
> To:   Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> cc:
> Subject:  IMPORTANT: RESEARCH ON WHAT?
> 
> To make a long story brief, I'll just tell you that the High Voltage
> Institute of Helsinki (part of the Helsinki University of Technology) is
> interested in Tesla Coils.
> 
> They are going to support me financially in order to build one (or more)
> Tesla Coils and to make extensive research on it. That will constitute my
> PhD thesis.
> 
> They have got facilities and measurement instruments we have always been
> dreaming about and they are researching only about high voltage and related
> topics.
> 
> Having such a great opportunity I have to lay down a proposal about WHAT I
> am going to research about and here I need YOUR help, because, after all, I
> am just a beginner who has built one TC only.
> 
> My questions are:
> 
> 1. What is still not understood about Tesla Coils and what would be worth
> investigating about? In that laboratory I am confident I could, for
> instance, measure all the parameters of a TC you have always been dreaming
> about and try to make a model of it.
> 
> 2. Would it be more challenging insteas of a 2-coil TC to build and measure
> a 3-coil TC (Magnifier)?
> 
> 3. What you would start researchin about, if you were me?
> 
> P.S. I promise I'll keep the list all the time constantly informed about
> results and findings, but please help me to find a good subject. I don't
> want to discover something that has already been known by the majority of
> you. Instead I think some of you could have some technical questions
> bothering but no possibility to find answers for missing of instrumentation
> or facilities.
<SNIP>

Marco,

Congratulations! Since I graduated from college, I've been looking for
someone to pay me for doing Tesla Coil research - no takers (yet!). :^)
The overall theory of operation for 2-coil Tesla Coils is fairly well
known and straightforward. The theory of 3-coil systems is not as well
developed, and may present some potential (NPI) for deeper research.
However, I believe that the area(s) that could be most fruitful concern
the spark breakdown and plasma interactions between the secondary system
and the air.

One of the most challenging areas may be in gaining a better
understanding of the complex interactions, and energy transfer
processes, between the secondary:toroid and the surrounding air.
Specifically, what are the underlying mechanisms? Are the streamers
actually arrested sparks, and what are the parameters which govern their
formation, appearance and length? What is the relationship behind
secondary output voltage, topload capacitance, and streamer length? How
do Tesla Coil streamers compare with gas breakdown using single-polarity
impulses? Are positive TC streamers different that negative ones? Can
you achieve negative streamer growth? How do the streamers actually form
and grow, and how does this relate to the interval between successive
applications of energy (bang-size and rate)? And, Are there some
practical applications of this research in modern-day high voltage or
power research? Is it possible to model the interaction of the streamers
and secondary system in some fashion? 

Again, congratulations and the best of luck in your research... and
PLEASE keep us posted!

-- Bert --