Original poster: "David Rieben" <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Gerry,I'm not too sure of exactly what your asking but I'm assuming that you are making referance to the "bell curve" or "J curve", actually, that would represent the magnetic saturation range of the reactor's core on an x-y graphic? From what little personal experience that I've had with SRs, by gradually increasing the input DC voltage (usually something like 0 - 90 VDC at a few amps), you will proportionately increase the allowed current flow to the source load through the main coil. I BELIEVE once full saturation is achieved (90 VDC input to the control winding) then the main coil behaves almost like a short circuit. Conversely, with a zero volt DC input to the control coil, the main work coil will have maxi-
mum inductance and L reactance to the main AC volt- age and will allow a relatively small current flow, irreagardless of the load, even if it's a short circuit. David ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 1:44 PM Subject: Re: saturable reactor vs choke
Original poster: "Gerry Reynolds" <gerryreynolds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Hi David, A few questions:If one has a saturable reactor and the BH curve is sorta ideal with respect to the knee ( ie: it has constant slope until it saturates and then the curve precisely flattens out), I'm wondering what happens when this knee is reached. Does the current scream very high or is there a smooth transition to larger current as the saturation point is changed??Does a saturable reactor require a soft knee?? Gerry R.Original poster: "David Rieben" <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> With a "saturable reactor" (SR), in addtion to the "working" inductive coil, there is also a "control coil" of usually many more turns of smaller guage wire than the main "working"coil. A relatively low, variable DC voltage is introduced into the control coil to control the magnetic saturation of the ironcore so as to control the current flow through the main working coil. This allows infinite range of the current that's allowed to flow through the main working coil, irregardless of the source load. David Rieben