Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz" <acmdq@xxxxxxxxxx>
Tesla list wrote:
Original poster: "Qndre Qndre" <qndre_encrypt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Bleeder resistors are used to drain remaining charge from the
capacitors in the tank circuit. If the remaining voltage after
shutdown of the NST is too low to make the spark gap fire, the cap
will not discharge into the primary and will hold a potentially
lethal charge. A bleeder resistor across every single capacitor in
the MMC will consume this charge turning it into heat which is
better than having several kilovolts across the capacitors being
available to shock you if you make adjustments to your system
without shorting out every single cap. Furthermore a capacitor can
regain charge from dielectric memory. The resulting voltage can
exceed several hundreds of volts since there are so many capacitors
in series in an MMC.
In any case, the primary coil and the power transformer short-circuit
the primary capacitor, so it can't hold any DC voltage between its
terminals while the system is interconnected. But if more than a single
big capacitor is used, as in an MMC, different leakages and rectification
by corona can generate voltages across the individual capacitors. The
voltages can reach dangerous levels, and can also damage the capacitors.
The dielectric memory, although I have never observed it, may also
cause the generation of stray voltages after the system is turned off.
Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz