Re: high voltage capacitor current

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

Original poster: "Gerry Reynolds" <gerryreynolds-at-earthlink-dot-net> 

Hi Anthony,

If you discharge the cap into your TC primary, the inductance of the primary
will be the main limiter.  Of course the ESR of the cap and spark gap will
help limit as well but even if these contributors were zero you can still
count on the inductance and use an energy balance to compute the max
current:

1/2 I L^2  =  1/2 C V^2

and solve for I.

Imax = Vmax / sqrt (L/C)  [no losses]

actual max current should be a little less than this because of losses.

Gerry R.


 > Original poster: "Anthony" <ant17-at-optushome-dot-com.au>
 >
 > Hi guy I was wonder if you guys might be able to tell me when you
discharge
 > a capacitor does the equivalent series resistance limit the current and if
 > not what factors do limit the current slightly
 >
 >