RE: Energy Discharge Capacitor

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Yurtle Turtle <yurtle_t@xxxxxxxxx>

>From the below equation:

E = .5CV^2

It should be apparent that both caps need to be
charged to the same voltage, regardless of whether
they're series or parallel, in order to get the same
energy out. I have two 10kV 100mF Maxwells I run in
parallel.

Adam

--- Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Original poster: "Daniel Seidel" <dfseidel@xxxxxxx>
>
>
>
> I wonder what the shot life is supposed to be on
> these caps...
>
> After getting a few off-list suggestions I was
> planning on
> running a pair in series, which would only require
> about
> 1/2 faceplate voltage to be seen by either cap --
> that should
> keep potential reversal way down.  The real question
> would be:
> how many shots is 10% when the caps won't be pushed
> to their
> faceplate ratings.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Original poster: Gomez Addams
> <gomezaddams@xxxxxxxxx>
> Multiple people, in multiple physics labs have told
> me that it is
> standard practice to remove pulse caps from duty
> when they are within
> 10% of their predicted shot life, so they don't fail
> catastrophically
> and make a mess or cause other capacitors in a bank
> to fail.  Shot
> life can be predicted fairly accurately if you know
> all of the
> parameters of a shot - the formula is fairly simple.
>
> A guy who worked in the Atlas Machine lab told me I
> should be very
> wary of used large pulse capacitors showing up on
> the surplus market,
> especially if I wanted to operate them near their
> ratings - he said
> most of them are "used up".
>
>
>