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Re: IMPORTANT: RESEARCH ON WHAT?



At 02:43 AM 11/25/98 -0700, you wrote:

>From: Marco Denicolai-at-MARTIS on 23.11.98 09:10

>My questions are:
>
>1. What is still not understood about Tesla Coils and what would be worth
>investigating about?

How can a more efficient, smaller and safer device be created and the state
of the art advanced?

How about the secondary arc? How can it be controlled & directed?

>3. What you would start researchin about, if you were me?

Research Dual-Mode coil:
CW/tube coils lack big output sparks. Impulse coils lack high continous
power. Why not combine the two? Laser and high pressure sodium power
supplies apply a high voltage pulse to ionize the medium, then reduce the
voltage and increase current. Dynamic impedance matching is the issue, to
match the changing plasma impedance. The trick (for me, anyways) is
protecting a solid-state CW amplifier from the high-power impulse. Ferrite
and spark gaps could work.

Use solid state & magnetics to reduce footprint:
IGBT can switch hundreds to thousands of amps. Common switch mode IC's can
regulate and protect them. Metalic glasses and ferrites can be used in low
loss high frequency and power dense magnetic cores. High pressure air-freon,
or even oil maybe, can insulate megavolts. Its about time for a miniature,
solid-state coil. Problem for me is, I find RD destructive, and I can't
imagine developing one without destroying a several 100 - 1000 of $$$ in
parts.

Use chemical MHD pumping for kilo-joule to mega-joule energy levels:
Perhaps you are familiar with the singing hydrogen flame in a glass tube, or
whistling rocket engines? http://www.infowar-dot-com/MIL_C4I/mil_c4i8.html-ssi
describes how a single explosion generates EMP in the flux compression
generator. A resonant fire burning in a plasma shell (or suitable spark gap
orifice) would transduce energy to and from a Tesla Coil's magnetic field,
similar to a motor or generator rotor. The compact high-RF power (even if
poorly efficient) could be very usefull for lasers and ultra-clean induction
furnaces, and at large enough power levels, nuclear fusion ignitors.

Other energy storage paradigms:
Bulky transformers and capacitors are used to feed the Tesla primary. Other,
high-impulse power storage methods may be more advantagous. What if a
Kilo-watt large bulky capacitor could be replaced by a fly-wheel induction
motor-generator (compulsator)? How about liquid sodium swirling around a
transformer core, Faraday-disk style? Or a vibrating shell of piezo-ceramic
or ferrite?

Methods of controlling the arc, so it doesn't accidentaly hit and damage
anything:
* use a N2 laser to ionize air (there is a patent on this method!)
* use a microwave beam, experiment with different types of antenna; phased
arrays and helical arrays, to form various energy conduits & transmission
lines. Beaming microwaves into the TC discharge should be something like
blowing into a flame for a blow-torch effect. Maybe non-linear plasma
focusing could occur, for a flame-thrower type effect :).
* fire plasma balls or smoke-ring like vortex from a plasma gun?
http://ve4xm.caltech.edu/Bellan_plasma_page/howto.htm
* using lasers, employ the wakefield principle in the arc discharge, to
accelerate and focus charges into a beam.
http://www.indiana.edu/~icfa/icfa12/node24.html

So many kewl toyz. So little time...