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Analysis of streamer observations

Hi Terry, All,
    I noticed the following things from your streamer current scope
waveform:

1.  When the first voltage rise begins on the toroid and reaches a
voltage of approximately 50 kV there is a large current spike for the
streamer waveform.  Is this real or an artifact?

2.  After the spike the streamer current waveform appears to be 180
degrees out of phase with the voltage on the toroid for about 1/2
period.  Not quite sure I understand this.

3.  At about 10 us after the spike the streamer current begins to
track the toroid voltage.  The waveform appears to be distorted or
nonlinear.  Could this be from streamer channel heating effects?

4.  At about 20 us after the spike the streamer waveform appears to
become more sinusoidal.  There appears to be a very slight saw tooth
(RC charge and discharge) curvature to the waveform.

5.  Some of the peaks appear to have spikes.  Could these be
oscillations within the streamer itself?  Alfven waves?  Digital scope
effects?

6.  At about 32 us, 34 us, 38 us, and  43 us there appear to be
shoulders or plateaus on the sides of the peaks.  Could this be from
branching of the streamer?

7.  From 60 to 75 us the sawtooth waveform shape in the streamer
current becomes pronounced.

8.  At around 200 us the streamer current appears to extinguish below
about 100 microAmperes.  Could this be the measurement noise floor?

9.  The streamer current waveform appears to be symmetric w.r.t. the
axis whereas the toroid voltage waveform appears to be biased
positively.  The baseline at the beginning of the trace appears to be
offset also.  Is this a measurement artifact?  Is this bias polarity
really positive?

10.  After about 100 us the streamer current appears to extinguish
completely.  The voltage on the toroid appears to ring with a very
steady amplitude indicating a state of high Q.  This ringing at about
+ and - 40 kV appears to not cause any observable streamer current.
Is this a R.O.C. limit for your salad bowl toroid?  B.T.W. I replaced
my silver soldered salad bowls with a real toroid (24 by 4 maybe) and
the spark length doubled with minor retuning at the same input energy.
It would be very interesting to see comparison waveforms between the
two types of terminal.  It would also be interesting to see streamer
current measurements with various types of discharge electrodes
ranging from needle points to spheres of different sizes.?????


----- Original Message -----
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 1999 7:05 PM
Subject: Re: Secondary Theory (Was Bipolar Coil)-Heretical view


Original Poster: Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>

It is my understanding that these are all streamers.  I know mine
were.  I
cannot verify if Greg's were???  When a streamer hits a grounded
target the
currents are giant and the system is instantly drained!!!  Another
paper I
never got around to writing yet...

Terry


>http://www.peakpeak-dot-com/~terryf/tesla/experiments/modact/modact.html
>
>in the very last photo, you can see my current to the arc was also at
>the
>fundamanetal of 110kHz in my case.
>Terry