RE: I've lost my k. Can someone help me find it?

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Mike Doyle by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <mdoyle-at-CHERRYCORP-dot-com>


I am curious as to what is actually breaking down when racing arcs happen. 

Ignoring breakdown between the primary and secondary what other forms of
breakdown are there? Is it a turn to turn breakdown implying that better
insulation on the secondary wire itself or space winding may help. Maybe a
larger diameter secondaries former or secondary wire (larger ROC) or perhaps
more turns on the secondary (less volts per turn).

Or is it breakdown between voltage (peaks, nodes??) along the secondary
implying
that maybe a ribbed insulation formed over the secondary may help (larger
creepage distance, I think Gary Lau suggested this) or would the arcs just
track under the insulation along the surface of the wire.

Any clarification would be appreciated as I have never really understood what
was actually happening when racing arcs occurred.

Regards Michael 

Michael Doyle - Senior Lab Technician 
Cherry Electrical Products 
11200 88th Ave, P.O. Box 581913 
Pleasant Prairie, WI  53158-0913 
Phone: (414) 942-6627 
Fax: (414) 942-6334 
EMAIL: <mdoyle-at-cherrycorp.htm>mdoyle-at-cherrycorp-dot-com 
http://www.cherrycorp-dot-com/  
-----Original Message-----  From:   Tesla list [SMTP:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]  Sent:  
Thursday, September 26, 2002 6:30 PM  To:     tesla-at-pupman-dot-com  Subject:       
RE: I've lost my k. Can someone help me find it? 

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net> 

At 01:55 PM 9/26/2002 -0600, you wrote:  >Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of
Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" ><Gary.Lau-at-hp-dot-com>  >  >THANK YOU (please
pardon my shouting) for performing and reporting on such  >a detailed
experiment.  The alleged coupling "sweet spots" have long been  >suggested to
theoretically be significant, but it's also been my  >observation that
performance simply increases with increasing k until  >racing arcs occur.  Time
to retire this to the "coiling myths" graveyard.  >Hey, there's an idea for a
useful web page!  >  >Regards, Gary Lau 



Implying then, that if you improve the insulation of the secondary, you can
raise k. 

I think that racing sparks indicate that the peak voltage on the secondary is
rising too high, implying that the load from the developing streamers isn't
enough to keep the voltage down, as charge flows into the topload.  If you had
a bigger secondary, and better insulation, then the voltage can get higher,
which should increase the current flow into the streamer (assuming it is
limited by either R or L). 

Higher k (without "bad effects" like racing sparks) implies faster power
transfer to the streamer/spark, which has to be a net good, right?