the mechanical engineering problem

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "D.C. Cox" <resonance@xxxxxxxxxxxx>




Thanks to everyone who submitted ideas for the big primary coil.  I 
have several ideas now and will resolve the issues soon.

Several members suggested internal primary, but if there are any 
flashovers they would not be visible unless fiber optics were 
employed to watch for them.

The idea I think we will employ (actually suggested by several 
members) is to use 5 inch wide x 1/4 inch copper ribbon buss bar and 
then silver plate it.  With a 6 inch overlap and approx 8 
copper-berillium fasteners we can clamp the sections together.  I 
will use 1/4 turn sections to form the massive 2.5 turn primary that 
is 56 inches high.  The price of copper should make this an 
interesting item on my shopping list!

Both Steve Ward and Bob Cooper at General Atomics, independently, 
suggested using 12 uF 25 kV DC pulse cap and breaking this up into 4 
separate,3 uF caps to help distribute the heat which will be 
considered running at 150 kVA continuous.  Firing into our 2 turn pri 
it will resonate at approx 10 KHz.

Both Steve and Brian V. are running the thermal computer simulations 
for the 84 ft long primary coil.

PowerEx is considering reducing the cost of the IGBTs substantially 
to get involved as a sponsor on this project.  This will really help 
as this beast starts to get expensive fast!!   $32,000 for the IGBTs 
and $31,000 just for the sec coilform (that's with the wire sealed 
inside another layer)!!   I'm sure it will be well over $200K when we 
tally up all the final numbers.

Meanwhile the planning goes on .......

Thanks again guys for the input.  Problem solved.

In recovery this week ---- got hit with another (my 3rd) heart attack 
3 days ago, and an energy discharge capacitor (my defib/pacemaker) 
once again saved my life!!  Never knew capacitors could hurt so 
much!!   I was playing a tough game of one-pocket billiards with a 
lawyer when my heart raced up to 280 bpm and the defib fired.  My 
cardiologist later told me what to do to prevent such future problems 
---- don't play lawyers for money!!  BTW; I told him, I was winning!!

Regards,

Dr. Resonance