Re: [TCML] Spontaneous streamer breakouts

[drieben@xxxxxxxxxxx (David Rieben)]

Hi Steve,

Basically, what causes spontaneous breakout is the 
voltage potential on the surface of your toroid ex-
ceeding the radius of curvature (ROC) standoff volt-
age of the toroid. That's the reason that coilers often
place as large of a toroid as practically possible on
their coil. Of course, there are limitations and if the
output terminal is too large for the available power
input to the coil system, breakout will never occur
and the output toroid terminal becomes more of an
antenna, radiating plenty of RF energy (to wirelessly
light up flourescent tubes and such) but producing
no visible sparks. Sometimes this problem can be
overcame by installing a breakout point to force the
sparks to break out from the locally much smaller 
ROC that the breakout point introduces to the 
system. Naturally, you can install larger toroids on
larger and more powerful coil systems and still attain
reliable spontaneous breakout with the larger available
power levels.

--
David Rieben

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "Stephen J. Hobley" <shobley@xxxxxxxxxx> 

> Can someone explain what causes spontaneous streamer breakouts please? 
> We had to "tease" the sparks out of the toroid on Saturday night using our 
> discharge wand. 
> 
> What factors make the spontaneous breakouts occur, and where are they trying to 
> get to? 
> (Mentally I'm picturing the equivalent of condensation nuclei - like in my beer 
> glass) 
> 
> Thanks, 
> Steve 
> 
> 
>

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