From: "Malcolm Watts"
Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 18:48:43 +1200
Subject: Re: [TSSP] Racing arcs
Hi all,
On 20 May 2002, at 17:23, Barton B. Anderson wrote:
> Hi Paul, Boris, All,
>
> Paul wrote:
>
> > I'll have to think about this development a little more. But one
> > thing comes to mind - this should imply that the streamer roots
> > on the topload will try to space themselves as far apart from each
> > other as they can, because as one streamer forms, its addition to
> > the space charge above that region of the topload will tend to
> > suppress further new streamers in that area. Only away from that
> > root will the surface field attempt to exceed 26kV/cm and start
> > a new streamer.
>
> Indeed! I'll second John's observations. Last night when I applied
> moderate power without breakout point, I was getting 1 to 2 streamers.
> When 2 streamers formed, they formed on opposite sides of the toroid, 180
> degrees apart.
>
> Bart
That idea is just what I've observed in action. In fact I've long
suspected there is an element of mutual repulsion going on. The ball
of nearly invisible streamers I've seen appears to be a reflection
(npi) of this.
An interesting illustration of this can also be seen on a small
low-powered coil. If there is nothing nearby to attract the
streamers, they spread in all directions. If something is slowly
moved towards the terminal, you can see the nearest streamers at
first touch the object then, as the screwdriver point or whatever is
moved closer still, more and more streamers join the party and if the
screwdriver is still far enough away not to cause a "single" spark to
be generated, what you see is a bunch of streamers terminated at the
screwdriver trip, emanating from a limited area on the topload, and
spreading away from each other in the intervening space. Looks like a
sort of 3-d ellipsoid.
Regards,
Malcolm
Maintainer Paul Nicholson, paul@abelian.demon.co.uk.