Re: Sparklength inquiry

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Sparklength inquiry
From: Greg Leyh <lod-at-pacbell-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <terryf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 04:58:40 -0600
Approved: terryf-at-verinet-dot-com

> Original Poster: "Barton B. Anderson" <mopar-at-uswest-dot-net>

> > Finally, the equation  (Vs/1000/65)^1.43  is incorrect
> > for Tesla Coils, since both Vs *and* BPS are first-order
> > contributors to the total spark length of a real coil.
> 
> Yes, that's why I was trying to manipulate BPS into the
> Es equation above to accomodate for the bps
> contribution. No luck. After the post I threw in some
> high bps values which I had not done before, and the
> sparklength was "dreamy", but not realistic, at least on
> my coil.

Awhile back, someone (perhaps Mark Rzeszotarski?)
came up with a curve fit of power consumption vs
coil scale.  I remember that it seemed to fit the
real-world data fairly well, and that it's baseline
showed that coil power increases with the *square*
of the coil dimensions.  
If we assume that all coils under consideration are
operated at their optimum BPS (to get BPS out of the
equation) then arc length seems to be more directly 
related to output power, as the total arc volume must 
be super-heated in order to be an arc in the first place.
Doubling the arclength should increase arc volume by 8,
but the square/cube law may help to conserve heat in the 
core, possibly resulting in just a squared relationship.

I tend to view the TC as a furnace in this way, and 
more *power* is necessary for more plasma.
-- 


-GL
www.lod-dot-org