Original poster: Terry Fritz <vardin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Hi,
"Pre warning the Neighbors"... Goes far!!! :-)))))))))
Cheers,
Terry
20kJ is also 20 AA batteries or a very small bite of a candy bar!
http://www.phy.syr.edu/courses/modules/ENERGY/ENERGY_POLICY/tables.html
But your points are well taken. However some of what you describe is the product of a virtual short circuit spark. Very nasty on the caps and I hope I never mistreat them like that, particularly after the transport cost of 130kg from the US to Australia. (That cost more than my car is worth but then again it is almost as old as the Space shuttle and has done nearly as many miles).
They are rated at 150 - 200kA. At present my 1.5kJ can crusher runs to 40kA in first 20us measured with my Rogowski coil.
http://tesladownunder.com/misc1.htm#Measurement%20of%20high%20current%20pulses
At the moment I use a tungsten contact in preference to a triggered spark gap to try to minimise losses and noise for my can crusher. With my current voltage reversal issues with can crushing I need to be conservative with high energy discharges.
I wasn't planning to enter the Darwin awards by putting a screwdriver across the terminals of a 20kJ cap!
I was sort of expecting to make a bunker for anything high energy such as coinshrinking. EMP and mains spike issues are certainly a worry but I can pop these in a trailer and take them 'out bush' (along with 20AA batteries to charge them). There is also the local rifle range. Neighbors are about 50 - 100m away and not in direct line of sight so relatively distant compared to suburbia.
Peter
Original poster: Terry Fritz <vardin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
A Gerret +P 44 caliber magnum round (about the max any normal human would fire from a hand gun) is about 2000 joules.
The original AK-47 round is 1400 joules.
The 30-06 round is about 3600 joules...
At say 10 feet, the "bang" from 20kJ would knock your right off your feet and probably unconscious!!!
Be careful, 20kJ is definitely in the "not at all funny" category!! It is important to note the a 20kJ spark happens in microseconds so the energy effect is a giant shock wave. The dropping car is spread out into a nice "soft" hit over tens of milliseconds...
For 20kJ sparks, you would have to be uncomfortably near so sand bags, very good ear protection, eye protection (very bright flash)....
.. Be careful there friend :-) If you do set that thing off, try to get a tape video for us >:o)) But don't become a Darwin Award =:O Bill's 7.5kJ thing blew up the electronics in three of his neighbor's houses too and much just from the "electrical" shock wave!!!...
Cheers, Terry
Take a compact car (1000 kg), rise it 2 meters, and drop it to the ground. This is 20 kJ. Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz