Re: Awesome Quarter Shrinking Capacitors on EBAY

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Sean Taylor" <sean.s.taylor-at-comcast-dot-net> 

That was the cap bank from NOVA - a pulsed laser expirement at the Lawrence
Livermore National Lab.  It's decommissioned now (and all those caps are
sitting around!!! or atleast a lot of them are, some have been sold off),
and NIF is taking it's place.  NIF is a lot bigger (a building about the
size of a football stadium), and has lots of little lasers for blowing up
small targets.  I was a summer intern at LLNL for a couple summers working
on the NIF project, and there are some HUGE caps there . . .  At one point
(before it was decommissioned), I got a tour of NOVA, and wanted to ask "can
I please just take a couple of those caps home???  At one of the two
facilities, don't remember which, there was a rumor that I heard of some
techs that were setting up the cap banks left a wrench in the cap room.  A
test charging was started, and a little bit later, a huge explosion was
heard . . . the wrench was no more, but everything else was intact.  From
then on each cap bank was "wrench tested."  Don't know exactly how much
truth there is here, but it's a funny way to test a cap bank nonetheless . .
.
Sean Taylor


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2003 11:03 AM
Subject: Re: Awesome Quarter Shrinking Capacitors on EBAY


 > Original poster: Yurtle Turtle <yurtle_t-at-yahoo-dot-com>
 >
 > I forgot where this one came from but check this puppy
 > out:
 >
 > http://www.hot-streamer-dot-com/adam/60_MJ_cap_bank.jpg
 >
 > adam
 >
 > --- Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> wrote:
 >  > Original poster: "Jim Lux" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>
 >  >
 > <snip>
 >  >
 >  > Actually, much better... The standard squarish can
 >  > (12x12x29) was 6kJ using
 >  > kraft paper/oil.... These days, you can get 100 kJ
 >  > in the can..
 >  >
 >  > This raises a significant problem.. 6kJ is an energy
 >  > that can be contained
 >  > by the steel box forming the cap...so, if an
 >  > internal fault develops, the
 >  > explosion won't be that spectacular...
 >  > However, 100 kJ is not something you can hold in, so
 >  > internal failures are
 >  > MUCH more spectacular. I've heard stories (but not
 >  > actually seen) about
 >  > tests with caps exploding... at these energies, the
 >  > fuses are to protect the
 >  > cap from the other caps in the bank, rather than to
 >  > protect the single cap.
 >  > Imagine 50 of those puppies in parallel.... (Project
 >  > Sherwood...)
 >  >
 >  > These days, I think they use Compulsators for
 >  > Megajoule energies.... Except
 >  > perhaps in multimarx setups like the Z-machine.
 >  >
 >  >
 >