Re: Weird cylindrical spark gap

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Weird cylindrical spark gap
From: Bert Hickman <bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <terryf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 07:51:41 -0600
Approved: terryf-at-verinet-dot-com

Tesla List wrote:
> 
> Original Poster: Doug Brunner <dabrunner-at-earthlink-dot-net>
> 
> I'm working on a redesign of the cylindrical spark gap for my new
> system. It's on the inside of a 4" diameter, 3" long PVC pipe, with 1"
> diameter hard copper electrodes. There will be 8 of them, placed around
> the pipe so as to create a total 1" gap, with 2 in parallel (the gap
> will go both ways around the pipe, so the connections are at opposite
> sides of the pipe). The large gap is because my system runs at 24 kV.
> How much power do you think this will quench? I can put a fan across it
> if necessary.
> 
> --
>            --Mr. Postman (Doug Brunner)
>                 <dabrunner-at-earthlink-dot-net>

Doug,

You'll definately need to use a fan to rapidly remove the heat that's
generated. Otherwiase the copper pipes will overheat and melt the PVC
housing. With good air cooling you should be able to physically handle
1-2 KVA without overheating. However, you may not get adequate quenching
at the higher power levels. You may need to go to a gap design which
forces air between the gaps, as in a vacuum gap. Also, how did you
arrive at the 1" gap? This sounds a bit long even for a 24 kV source. 

-- Bert --