Michael Twieg wrote:
This is for out DRSSTC, the cable going between the primary coil and primary capacitor. The primary will see maybe up to 500 amps RMS, and the voltage at that note may be up to 15KV peak. We were advised by a professional power electronics engineer to not simply throw rubber insulator on a cable. Apparently air between the conductor and insulator will ionize, which will chemically degrade the insulation over time. We were just looking for a more robust solution.
They're right about the insulation degradation. But, as others have posted, why insulate at all? 500A RMS? at 15kV that's almost 10 Megawatts. Perhaps you mean you've got pulses, during the pulse you've got 500A RMS?Anyway, you're looking for tubing here, both for the low inductance, and because at the frequency, skin effect means that you're only using the outside layer of the wire, so why spend the money on copper you aren't using. Use 1/2" copper tubing or something similar. You could also probably use the shield of coax cable. you can connect the center conductor in parallel.
In any case, trying to find insulated wire rated for the insulation is going to be a chore.
Also, just how long a run is this? And does it really make much difference? If you went from AWG0 to AWG 20, it's going to be roughly a factor of 10 in AC resistance. If the run is, say, 2 feet long, that's a few milliohms difference. At 500Arms that's about 250W/milliohm, but I suspect that's pulsed(e.g. you don't have a handy 10 MW wall socket to plug into), and in any case, the average power dissipation will be quite low.
Or, more practically, if you want insulated wire, get some AWG14 HV wire and try it. If it melts, THEN go get your insulated copper bar stock...
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