Cecil Moore wrote:
On Oct 17, 10:03 pm, Myron A. Calhoun wrote:
Isn't that the basis for a Tesla coil?

The principle behind most Tesla coils is quarter-wave (90 degree) self-
resonance. There is a standing wave current maximum at the base of the
coil and a standing wave voltage maximum at the top of the coil.
--
73, Cecil, w5dxp.com

Not really... that used to be an explanation, because for conveniently
sized coils, the length of the wire on the secondary is pretty close to
a 1/4 free space wavelength at the resonant frequency. However, you can
build tesla coils that deviate pretty strongly from that, and they still
work well, indicating that the 1/4wavelength (or slow wave transmission
line) model isn't all that hot.

The current/voltage distribution along the secondary is pretty close to
linear, especially if you have a decent sized topload.

It's resonant, but not 1/4 wavelength. You can model a tesla coil's
behavior to within about 5% using a simple lumped LC model. The
secondary is a lumped L and the self C of the inductor plus the C of the
"topload".

There's some pretty rigorous analysis out there of tesla coils these
days. Paul Nicholson's analysis is probably one of the best
http://abelian.org/tssp/

and has been confirmed by measurement.

Antonio C.M. de Queiroz has some elegant analytic models of coupled
resonators which adequately describe most tesla coil configurations
(including magnifiers) and more to the point, his analysis predicted
some new ways to operate a coil, which were proven in practice by some
experimenters. (that's sort of the proof in the pudding of theory.. it
predicts some behavior that hasn't been seen before, and when you look
for it, you find it)
http://www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/tesla/magnifier.html


There are some very nice finite element codes out there for Tesla coils,
as well. JavaTC is based on one of them
http://www.classictesla.com/java/javatc.html