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Re: Safety gap issues



Original poster: Jim Lux <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

At 11:51 AM 11/26/2005, you wrote:
Original poster: Terry Fritz <vardin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Jim,

At 08:16 AM 11/26/2005, you wrote:
...........
If you want to "estimate" the voltage on your tesla coil from it's physical design, your best bet is to measure the radius of curvature. The voltage won't be much higher than the radius of curvature in cm times 30 kV/cm, and will likely be lower (since that's the max voltage for smooth sphere with nothing around it).

I have noticed that the "breakout voltage" does tend to correspond to the radius of curvature and all. However, the top voltage can then go substantially beyond that. If there is a lot of power behind the arcs. Then the "breakout loading" is just not enough to hold the voltage down. So it does not act like say a hard Zener diode, but rather a Zener with a big resistor in series with it.

Hmmm... That is.. the secondary inductor is still putting current/charge into the topload, and the charge isn't being lost fast enough through corona and streamers. I suppose there's also a "inductance of the topload" effect that would slow down the movement of charge off the topload.

So. the voltage would rise rapidly to breakout, and then, keep rising, somewhat slower, after that?






Cheers,

        Terry