RE: Parallel and Series LCR Circuit Qs

["John H. Couture" <couturejh-at-worldnet.att-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

All -

This could be misleading. Every generator in a power station has a voltage
regulating characteristic that limits its ability to furnish a certain
amount of current without excessive voltage drop. If the power station is a
small one with a small generator like many of the early rural hydro plants
the current load will be very limited because of the generator inpedance. In
some cases it will be impossible to operate a large electric welder or Tesla
coil? without causing the neighbors lights to flicker.

John Couture

--------------------------



-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2000 5:36 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Parallel and Series LCR Circuit Qs


Original poster: "Malcolm Watts" <M.J.Watts-at-massey.ac.nz>

Hi Gavin,

On 21 Aug 00, at 6:49, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: ghub005-at-xtra.co.nz
>
> > Original poster: "Richard Kircher" <richard.kircher-at-worldnet.att-dot-net>
>
> <snip>
>
> >  Most confusing to me is impedance matching to the load/streamer.
> >  Some
> > folks think that the most power transfer occurs when the source
> > impedance is matched to the load impedance.  Don't try that idea with
> > your car battery.  The most power transfer occurs when the source
> > impedance is ZERO ohms and this applies to all lumped component
> > circuits.  Of course, absolute zero is not achievable especially when
> > the Cp/Cs ratio is high in the world of realizable coil parameters.
> > Given that the streamer impedance can't be changed or matched, it
> > would seem the only thing left to do is to make the coil output
> > resistance as low as possible (high efficiency) and match the reactive
> > component.
>
> Richard
>
> Surely a source impedance of zero ohms means that your power
> source also has a zero output voltage? (Ohm's law)
>
> For maximum power transfer you will need to make the TC's output
> impedance equal to the complex conjugate of the spark impedance
> i.e. match the resistive componets and reverse the reactive
> component. This will give you a theoretical maximum efficiency of
> 50% (as at least half of the power will always dissipated in the
> source impedance).
>
> Of course, the spark impedance probably isn't linear - so all this
> may be moot. I would recommend that you just aim for the ballpark
> and concentrate on reducing losses in the SG and primary etc etc.

Technically a voltage source has an internal impedance of zero
ohms. By definition this means it can deliver any amount of
current asked of it with no voltage drop at its terminals. A
large lead-acid battery comes close to this definition as does
a power station.

Regards,
Malcolm
<snip>