RE: ASRG - Performance Testing

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

Original poster: "Mccauley, Daniel H by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <daniel.h.mccauley-at-lmco-dot-com>


Then again, just forget the test and run normally.  If you figure you run a
40 hour test and it breaks at hour 38.  Well,
thats 38 hours of run you might have gotten during normal tesla coiling use.


But, i'd definitely might try running it just to see how long it runs before
destruction.  Be interesting anyways.
I would probably run it at 240 BPS (whatever RPM that turns out to be) which
I think is 1800 RPM with 8 electrodes.

Or even more fun, lets see how long it lasts at maximum speed, 15000RPM!!!
I'm sure it would not last that long at all.
Maybe 5-10 minutes???

Dan





Hi Dan,

At 11:34 AM 1/24/2003 -0500, you wrote:
 >5. I would challenge anyone who has made one of these gaps to run a simple
 >test: will the gap run continuously for 1 week without self destructing? I
 >don't mean commutating an operating Tesla coil, but just sitting alone in a
 >corner behind a shield with the motor running.  This might seem extreme at
 >first, given the duty cycle of a Tesla coil, but certainly a rotary gap
 >could be expected to see several hours of cumulative run time over the life
 >of a coil. Demonstrating a survival time of 20X actual run time (or 40
 >hours) is not unreasonable, given the possible consequences of failure.
 >
 > >>>>>>Challenge accepted!  I will attempt to do this test.  Do you think
 >it could be broken down into say 8 hour intervals over a period of a few
 >days,
 >or do you think its absolutely necessary to have a continual 40 hour run???
 >I know at work, some tests require uninterrupted testing while others can
be
 >broken down and run through a few sessions.
 >
 >Dan


8 hour intervals should be fine and it does add the stress of thermal
cycling.  If you could run it in the cold (like outside overnight) and
maybe put a heat lamp on it at other times, that would really get the
thermal stress factors going too.

Personally, I would try to run it till it breaks or for a very long time to
see what parts want to give out first.  But if it goes for 40 hours without
signs of failing, it's probably fine ;-)

Cheers,

          Terry