RE: SSTC theory (scope shots)

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

Original poster: "Steve Conner" <steve.conner-at-optosci-dot-com> 

 >In some respects this is really disappointing because it means that
 >current is ramping up in the primary as well as the secondary does it
 >not?

Yes, this is exactly what happens. The energy in the primary circuit
(1/2*Lp*Ip^2, or 1/2*Cp*Vp^2) ends up roughly equal to the energy in the
secondary circuit.

There are two differences though:

1: The energy in the primary mostly empties into the secondary after the
inverter shuts down. If we are cynical and say that half of it goes to the
secondary and the other half returns to the DC link, then we are still
achieving a bang energy 1.5 times greater than a conventional coil with the
same primary component ratings.

2: If the system runs in the quasi-CW mode, where the top voltage is heavily
clamped by breakout, the primary voltage and current will level off.
Therefore, the energy in the primary and secondary circuits is no longer
increasing, however the energy transferred to the discharge is still
increasing.

This allows for an almost unlimited effective "bang energy" by just
increasing the inverter on-time, even though the voltage/current ratings of
the primary and secondary are modest.

You can also imagine that it would allow the creation of sparks that were
long compared to the length of the resonator, without flashover, and indeed
Steve Ward's ISSTCs (and some built by others) do behave like this.

It seems that the way to promote this quasi-CW operation is to use tight
coupling (k=0.3)

Steve C.