Projects:2017s1-186 Playing Music Through a Tesla Coil
Contents
Introduction
This project aims to design, test and present a system comprising of two Tesla Coils and a Control Interface. Each Tesla Coil will utilise a different switching technology allowing experimental comparison in the performance of the differing types. The control panel will be used to send audio information to both coils in a format suitable to each coil type.
Project Team
Supervisor:
Dr Wen Soong [1]
Co-Supervisor:
Dr Andrew Allison [2]
Project Members:
Matthew Roylance
Stephen Samarzia
Luke Gaskin
Background Theory
A Tesla Coil is a resonant air core transformer capable of producing very high voltages. While there are many different topologies for Tesla Coils the general principle of operation remains the same for each.
A Tesla Coil is comprised of several elements; a high voltage power supply, a capacitor C1 and primary coil L1 which form a tuned resonant circuit and a switching device SG (traditionally a spark gap). A secondary coil L2 tuned with the primary coil L1 to form an air cored resonant transformer. A capacitive electrode or ‘top-load’ E is used to suppress premature corona discharge (high voltage arcing) which serves to improve the quality factor and increase the output voltage.
In Figure 1, C2 is a representation of the capacitance of the secondary coil windings in parallel with the capacitance of the top-load E
During operation the coil operates a repeating cycle as follows; C1 will charge and then discharge through the spark gap creating a pulse through the primary coil L1 which excites the secondary coil L2 producing high voltages.
