Re: [TCML] mmc cap protection by spark-gaps-any ideas?

[drieben@xxxxxxxxxxx (David Rieben)]

Hi Jolyon,

It's generally considered to not be a good practice to
dead short the terminals of a capacitor as the tremen-
dous peak current levels could damage the capacitor. 
As you have already mentioned, it would be quite dif-
ficult to make a gap narrow enough for <2000 volts 
anyway.

--
David Rieben

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: vatercox@xxxxxxx 

> Dear List 
> I have 30 x 47nF polypropylene metal foil caps, each rated at 2 kVDC 
> which I intend to wire as three strings of 10 capacitors for 
> approximately 14nF at 20kV DC. While normally each capacitor in an MMC 
> would be protected by a 10- or more megohm high voltage resistor these 
> have proved difficult to obtain (due to lack of demand?). In liu of 
> this would it be possible to protect each cap with a miniature 
> spark-gap -perhaps a pair of closely-positioned stiff wires connected 
> to the capacitor leads notwithstanding the fact that 2 kV is usually 
> regarded as a bit on the low side for satisfactory spark-gap operation 
> 
> Jolyon Francis Vater-Cox 
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