RE: THOR: First observations on streamer formation (try II)

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

Original poster: "John H. Couture" <couturejh-at-mgte-dot-com> 


In the Tesla Coil Construction Guide there is a graph showing Voltage vs
Spark length. It is based on the equation

   Secondary voltage = 65 x inches^0.7

This is based on past coiler data and is for continuous sparks from the
toroid to a ground point. It appears to work OK but I would like to bring it
up to date if it needs changing.
John Couture

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-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 6:41 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: THOR: First observations on streamer formation (try II)


Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz" <acmq-at-compuland-dot-com.br>

Tesla list wrote:

  > Original poster: Marco.Denicolai-at-tellabs-dot-com

  > Nothing new here: this is what I expected to see. The surprising thing
  > was the behaviour with a SINGLE bang. I could see the formation of:
  > - a single streamer OR
  > - a biforked streamer OR
  > - at least two streamers from two different toroid locations
  >
  >  >>This means that a single bang is capable of producing a number of
  > streamers, not just one<<

Note that a single bang still produces lots of activity in the terminal,
with many cycles of charge/discharge, and there is also the complicated
behavior of high-frequency currents in the terminal and in the
streamers.

Even a static machine, that produces single-shot sparks, can produce
eventual complicated shapes in long sparks.

  > Next I'll have to decide what to measure and how. First ideas:
  > - current throught the grounded stick (with a Rogoski coil) when there
  > is no hit. Could it register the smaller streamers?
  > - current at the secondary bottom
  > - readings with Terry's old Voltage-current antenna
  > - run of statistical measurements bang_amount vs. streamer_length vs.
  > bang_voltage

Something that nobody appears to know: How much voltage is necessary
for streamer formation? We know relations between the input power and
the spark length, but where does the voltage enter in this?
Some experiments with constant energy per bang but different voltages
would put some light on the subject. Needs different primary capacitors
and primary voltages, and retuning.

If you can synchronize a camera and the "bangs", you could look at
how a streamer forms and grows.

If you can produce streamers in a systematic way, measure the output
voltage while the streamers propagate.

Look at when streamers start to form, if during the energy transfer
transient or after the gap quenches.

Look if first, second, or nth notch quenching makes some difference,
and what difference.

Have you seen my comment about a different tuning for a Tesla coil that
increases the voltage gain beyond that 18% increase described in your
RSI paper?

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz