From: Paul
Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 20:57:41 +0100
Subject: [TSSP] Happy Birthday!
The project is 2 years old this month! An opportunity for a quick recap of progress so far. Since May 2000, we have * Documented the equations which describe the low-frequency behaviour of the resonator, with basic theory notes in http://www.abelian.demon.co.uk/tssp/pn2511.html and a more detailed description, using the rather nice and general formulation in terms of integral operators, in http://www.abelian.demon.co.uk/tssp/pn1401.html which includes the dual resonator TC. * Demonstrated that these correctly describe the behaviour of the resonator, thanks to numerous measurements supplied by all, as summarised in http://www.abelian.demon.co.uk/tssp/tests.html and particularly the voltage and current profiles measured by Terry, http://www.abelian.demon.co.uk/tssp/pn2510/ http://www.abelian.demon.co.uk/tssp/tfcp260302/ which have been a fantastic help in making sure that no 'terms' in the arithmetic have been dropped along the way. * Supplied unambiguous definitions for the effective inductances and capacitances of the solenoid. * Demonstrated time domain modeling of the resonator, and the comparison with measured waveforms, http://www.abelian.demon.co.uk/tssp/md110701/ * Produced a database of modeled coils, http://www.abelian.demon.co.uk/tssp/vsd/ from which we have derived some formulas, http://www.abelian.demon.co.uk/tssp/formulae.html * Spawned a couple of useful tools, such as http://www.abelian.demon.co.uk/acmi/ http://www.abelian.demon.co.uk/tssp/tcma/ Along the way, we have also dispelled a few common myths, and perhaps shown that a scientific approach using modern tools and well established physics bears more fruit than the endless biblical study of documents such as the CSN. Problems with pseudoscience continue to dog the field, and the only real way to combat this is to ensure the ready availability of good reliable information. Overall, the project doesn't seem to have made much impression on the coiling community. There are virtually no links to the project from the web, although the site does get a hundred or so visits on a good day. What Now? Although we have answered some of the questions which prompted me to start this project in the first place, not surprisingly more questions have been raised as a result, and we are still not much nearer being able to answer questions like, * What will be the input impedance of my coil? * Given an amount of wire, how should this be wound for best effect? * Should I construct a ground plane for my coil, if so, how? * What size and shape of topload will give me best performance? * What proportion of my input power is going into: gap loss, proximity loss, ground resistance loss, ground eddy loss, etc? all of which are reasonable questions that a coiler is entitled to ask. Similar questions asked of say, an RF antenna, could be readily answered through established theory using stock techniques and programs, which says something about the state of the art in Tesla coiling. Work in progress, and things to do: I've been fairly quiet in recent months, learning new math and working on the code. The aim is to release a new tidy version of the modeling code in the next two or three months. It will be able to do more or less any shape of coil, and combinations of coils, eg magnifiers, etc, as well as split bipolars. The capacitance program is much faster now, able to produce a detailed capacitance matrix in just a couple of minutes. It can handle any mix of topload and grounded electrode structures, eg, discs, spheres, cores, rods, etc, although the stuff which handles material dielectrics is not going very well and that may have to be left out for now. As a tentative hit-list of targets for further work, we might put forward, in no particular order: * Understanding the sources of dissipation in a TC, producing a loss budget, and predicting Q. * Determining the optimum size and shape of coil and topload for a particular application. * Exploring the interaction between the topload and its streamers. * Robust and efficient ways to couple power into the resonator, primary shapes, racing arcs, gap losses. These topics build on the foundation of results already achieved. It would also be nice to see some kind of survey of modern applications of TCs in science and industry, and to see if there are untapped opportunities for them to be applied in areas such as non-destructive testing, remote sensing, power conversion, etc. I also want to try to make more of an effort to raise the profile of the project within the TC community, both on pupman and beyond, in order to reach more coilers and to encourage more substantive criticism. I think we've done enough work now to justify a more confident dissemination of our results. ** Many thanks to all for an interesting and rewarding 2 years! ** I'm open to suggestions as to what to do for a celebration. -- If you no longer want to receive these list postings, mail to majordomo@abelian.demon.co.uk and put unsubscribe tssp in the body of the message. -- List archives are available under http://www.abelian.demon.co.uk/tssp/list/ -- Paul Nicholson, --
Maintainer Paul Nicholson, paul@abelian.demon.co.uk.