Re: Resonant charging and quench time

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Resonant charging and quench time
From: "Marco Denicolai" <Marco.Denicolai-at-tellabs.fi> (by way of Terry Fritz <twf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
Date: Thu, 07 Jan 1999 12:34:59 -0700
Approved: twf-at-verinet-dot-com

tesla-at-pupman-dot-com on 07.01.99 07:31:39

To:   tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
cc:    (bcc: Marco Denicolai/MARTIS)
Subject:  Re: Resonant charging and quench time

Original Poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz" <acmq-at-compuland-dot-com.br>

Tesla List wrote:

>The idea of "resonant charging" never works as ideally assumed, because
>if the gap closes in the first cycle it drains all the energy that would
>have to accumulate in the circuit, were it really resonate. The
>resonance
>can only be useful if the normal output voltage of the transformer is
>not
>enough to ignite the gap. .

>Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz

My design uses a rotating spark gap. The resonant charging inductor is
calculated so that it will charge the primary capacitor in one half of the
time between two consecutive bangs.

The charging reactor has also got a diode in series: the voltage developed
on the primary capacitor, therefore, will not go down while waiting for the
next bang.

The charging reactor works also as limiting reactor when the RSG is
conducting: the current drained by the RSG FROM THE TANK SUPPLY will not
rise to high values. That allows to have a DC tank supply with a big (15
uF) filter capacitor.

For a quench time of 100 us the filter capacitor voltage will drop only
about 100 V: my idea is to have all "bangs" of the same energy (i.e.
voltage on the primary capacitor be the same before each bang).

What seemed to spoil this idea was the voltage left on the primary
capacitor when the RSG opens. But if it opens only when the voltage left is
minimal than there is no problem.

I am working on this tank supply and I have reached already a 20 page size.
I'll make the schematics available from my WWW site as soon as I get them
ready.