TSSP: List Archives

From: Paul
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 08:58:18 +0100
Subject: Re: [TSSP] F A N T C: - It's NEW! - and needs some TSSP input

Bart wrote:

> Ran a detail (4) in Fantc: 
> BTW, with a detail = Time elapsed: 3529.5 secs (900Mhz chugg) 

Gosh, an hour.  Hmm, have to try it on mine when the machine's
not too busy.  I don't think many users will wait an hour for
a result.

>             fantc     tssp     measured 
> Fres(kHz)   236.82    234.9    238 kHz 
> Lee(mH)     18.14     18.44 
> Les(mH)     18.44     18.69 
> Ldc(mH)     18.85     18.84    18.67 
> Cee(pF)     23.70     24.23 
> Ces(pF)     24.56     24.57 
> Cdc(pF)     37.31     37.50 

> So yes, it converges toward tssp as you mentioned. 

That's a nice comparison there.  fantc uses the same physical
model as tssp, so they should converge unless there is a
coding error.

> Ran fantc at det 2 (236.5kHz, odd it's lower). 

It will hunt up and down a bit as it converges: both L and
C are converging to their final values as detail increases,
but they won't necessarily converge smoothly and at the same
rate, so from time to time one or other will be 'ahead' and
Fres will bob up and down.

BTW, that shouldn't give the impression that tssp and fantc
compute Fres by working out L and C and applying 1/(2*pi*sqrt(L*C)).
They don't.   Instead, Fres is worked out more directly, then the
V/I profiles are computed from that, then the effective L and C
are computed from the V/I profiles.  As a final check, you can
test it to see that Fres is close to 1/(2*pi*sqrt(Les*Ces)).
Since we're not using the Fres formula in the calculations, we're
entitled to use it as a cross check.

I wouldn't worry too much about whether to use average or nearest
wall radius, etc.  The difference in most cases is below the
meaningful accuracy of fantc, and for that matter tssp.

With both tssp and fantc, we get down to a resolution where
several effects start to introduce error.   Even though tssp
is equivalent to a fantc detail setting of around 20-30, it doesn't
show any significant improvement over fantc except in one or two
special cases where the resonator geometry is very accurately
defined, eg isolated smooth electrodes, etc.  

There seems to be a point, around about detail = 2 or 3, that
further detail will not meaningfully improve accuracy, both for
tssp and fantc.   Seems that fantc conveniently reaches the max
meaningful accuracy at a running time that is just tolerable for
the user.

Some of the factors that limit accuracy are (in no particular
order):
Material dielectrics;  Errors in measured dimensions, esp radius of
coils and toploads;  Poor definition of ground surface (eg do you
use soil level or the tips of the grass blades);  Walls and
ceilings (ok for those who live in lighthouses, but few of us
have cylindrical rooms);  Eddy currents and leakage currents;
Fres measurement errors;  Atmospheric conditions;

ok, the list goes on, and altogether they create a baseline of
noise for comparison tests.  Very nice that fantc digs down to
this baseline (circa 1% to 2% error), but does not pretend to
go 'beneath'.  Fantc seems to hit it just right.  Ok, now and
again you'll get a coil that matches to 0.1%, but don't get
excited because the next coil will be at 3% error.

The only way to go to more accuracy is to build pristine 
resonators, inside precision faraday cages, and even that would
only help a bit.

For outdoor coils over well defined ground planes, the biggest
residual error is that of material dielectrics (coil former mainly),
and this I am working on.

BTW, if you're left wondering why tssp uses a much higher
detail, its partly because I need to make sure that the residual
errors are dominated by physical effects, eg material dielectrics,
etc, rather than computational approximations, and partly because
we take results for the higher modes too, so proportionaly more
detail needed for those.
--
Paul Nicholson,
--


Maintainer Paul Nicholson, paul@abelian.demon.co.uk.