Projects:2017s1-186 Playing Music Through a Tesla Coil
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 which we aim to analyse and compare the performance and characteristics 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.
