Re: Spark Gap Behavior (fwd)

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Original poster: List moderator <mod1@xxxxxxxxxx>



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2006 22:24:48 -0200
From: Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz <acmdq@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Spark Gap Behavior (fwd)

Tesla list wrote:

> From: G Hunter <dogbrain_39560@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Spark Gap Behavior
> 
> Does anyone know offhand how a TC single static air
> gap behaves when conducting? Does it exhibit a fixed
> voltage drop? A fixed resistance? A dynamic voltage
> drop or resistance? Positive or negative
> characteristic? If anyone has the data handy or if you
> can point me at a link, please do.

Spark gaps are like gas discharge lamps, as neon lamps or
fluorescent lamps. They are nonlinear resistors controlled
by current. If you plot a voltage x current curve, you see
it starts with zero voltage for zero current, that quickly
becomes high voltage for low current, then decreasing voltage for
increasing current, ending with rising voltage for rising
current. The region where the voltage drops when the
current is increased shows negative incremental resistance,
and spark gaps are usually operated in this region.
To complicate things, she shape of the curve changes
with the temperature of the terminals and of the gas between
them, in general with all the voltages decreasing when
the temperature increases. Particularly, the initial high
voltage x low current region decreases substantially when
current starts to flow.

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz