Re: Why do streamers happen?

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

Original poster: "gtyler" <gtyler-at-drummond-dot-org.za> 

It is obvious that there are people on this list that know a lot more
than me,and I know there are holes in my theory, but anyway, my 2 cents
worth.....; This is more to check my own understanding and to learn than
a statement of what actually happens, please comment on it.

     In radiating RF  there is a near field and a far field. The far
field has both a magnetic component and an electrical component and
propigates through the interchange of energy between the two fields so
is able to radiate over long distances, but you have to have a radiator
(aerial) that can radiate both magnetically and electrically
efficiently to do that, that is why you do not have much of a problem
with interference with a TC. The aerial is far to small for that
frequency.
     Imagine a capacitor that consists of a point electrode surrounded by
a spherical outer electrode, the capacitance between the electrodes can
be replaced by lots of smaller capacitors in series. Imagine maybe 10
such capacitors of equal value and therefore equal lenghts throufg the
air between the electrodes, making up 10 spheres of capacitors. Now the
capacitors in each sphere can be thought of as being connected in
parallel with all the other capacitors in it's own sphere, so that the
outer sphere has more capacitors than the next one closer to the point
electrode, and, as they are in parallel, a higher capacitance. So the
capacitance of each sphere gets smaller the closer you get to the
centre, and by the time you get to the centre point, capacitance is
almost zero.
     The capacitance of all the spheres are effectively in series, and as
any ac current flowing through the total capacitance flows through all
the capacitance "spheres" and the voltage across each "sphere" is
inversely proportional to the capacitance, the voltage across the
spheres is higher the closer you get to the centre. This translates to a
higher field strength closer to the centre, in fact it would be infinite
at the centre. The point in the centre is like your toroid, the outer
sphere is like the rest of the universe.
     There is a field intensity above which air ionises,so at some radius
corona will start. If you increase the radius of the point to beyond
that radius where corona starts there will be no corona.
     Now we come to the question about why we get streamers: consider an
electrode that is smaller than that radius, the ionised air has a lower
resistance than unionised air, in fact it has a negative resistance
caracteristic, i.e. the higher the current the lower the resistance.
This  makes it unstable, so you don't get just a ball of corona but the
corona tends to gather into channels as the channels have lower
resistance because the current in them is higher....

George Tyler

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2004 8:49 AM
Subject: Re: Why do streamers happen?


 > Original poster: BunnyKiller <bunikllr-at-bellsouth-dot-net>
 >
 > Hi Gregory...
 >
 > I may be totally wrong on this but heres my theory..
 >