Tesla Coil Project

Group Leader:
Gonzales, Kervin Tommy A
Members:
Ramos, Justin
Rabaya, Janray
Leslie, Jaime
Manay, Janray
Proposed Topic:
Tesla Coil
Additional Features:
 Wireless electricity lighting up the bulb without physical contact with electricity
Electromagnetics Relationship:
 Magnetic Fields
 Current
 Magnetic Induction
 Transformer
 Half-Bridge
 Resonant Circuit
Background:
Brief introduction about Tesla Coil:
 A Tesla coil is an electrical resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around
1891. It is used to produce high-voltage, low-current, high frequency, alternating-current
electricity. Tesla experimented with a number of different configurations consisting of
two, or sometimes three, coupled resonant electric circuits.
 Tesla developed the coil in 1891, before conventional iron-core transformers were used
to power things like lighting systems and telephone circuits. These conventional
transformers can't withstand the high frequency and high voltage that the looser coils in
Tesla's invention can tolerate. The concept behind the coil is actually fairly simple and
makes use of electromagnetic force and resonance. Employing copper wire and glass
bottles, an amateur electrician can build a Tesla coil that can produce a quarter of a
million volts.
Setting up the tesla coil:

 A Tesla coil is consists of two parts a primary
and secondary coil, each with its own capacitor.
The two coils and capacitors are connected by a
spark gap, a gap of air between two electrodes
that generates the spark of electricity. The Tesla
coil is two open electric circuits connected to a
spark gap. A tesla coil needs a high-voltage
power source. A regular power source fed
through a transformer can produce a current with the necessary power.
How it works:
 The power source is hooked up to the
primary coil. The primary coil's capacitor
acts like a sponge and soaks up the charge.
The primary coil itself must be able to
withstand the massive charge and huge
surges of current, so the coil is usually
made out of copper, a good conductor of
electricity. Eventually, the capacitor builds
up so much charge that it breaks down the
air resistance in the spark gap. Then, similar to squeezing out a soaked sponge, the
current flows out of the capacitor down the primary coil and creates a magnetic field. The
massive amount of energy makes the magnetic field collapse quickly, and generates an
electric current in the secondary coil. The voltage zipping through the air between the
two coils creates sparks in the spark gap. The energy sloshes back and forth between the
two coils several hundred times per second, and builds up in the secondary coil and
capacitor. Eventually, the charge in the secondary capacitor gets so high that it breaks
free in a spectacular .The resulting high-frequency voltage can illuminate fluorescent
bulbs several feet away with no electrical wire connection. In a perfectly designed Tesla
coil, when the secondary coil reaches its maximum charge, the whole process should start
over again and the device should become self-sustaining. In practice, however, this does
not happen. The heated air in the spark gap pulls some of the electricity away from the
secondary coil and back into the gap, so eventually the Tesla coil will run out of energy.
This is why the coil must be hooked up to an outside power supply. The principle behind
the Tesla coil is to achieve a phenomenon called resonance. This happens when the
primary coil shoots the current into the secondary coil at just the right time to maximize
the energy transferred into the secondary coil. Think of it as timing when to push
someone on a swing in order to make it go as high as possible. Setting up a Tesla coil
with an adjustable rotary spark gap gives the operator more control over the voltage of
the current it produces. This is how coils can create crazy lightning displays and can even
be set up to play music timed to bursts of current. While the Tesla coil does not have
much practical application anymore, Tesla’s invention completely revolutionized the way
electricity was understood and used. Radios and televisions still use variations of the
Tesla coil today.
Concepts:
 Current, Magnetic Field and Induction
The basics of electromagnetism are Current, Magnetic Field and

Induction. In Maxwell’s equation which is Ampere’s law stated that
current flowing through a wire creates a magnetic field around it.
 Transformer
We can coil the wire to use this magnetic

field to our advantage. Magnetic fields form the
individual turns add together in the center.
Constant current makes a static magnetic field but when we apply changing current
through the wire, this tells us that the magnetic field changing in time induces a voltage across
the wire proportional to the rate of change of the magnetic field which is called Faraday’s law of
induction.
A transformer takes advantage of the law of induction to step AC voltages up or down. It

consists of two coils of wire around a core. The core is soft iron or ferrite, materials which are
easily magnetized and demagnetized.
An oscillating current in the primary winding establishes an oscillating magnetic field in

the core. The core concentrates the field, ensuring that most of it passes through the secondary.
As the magnetic field oscillates, it induces an oscillating current in the secondary coil. The
voltage across each turn of wire is the same, so the total voltage across the coils is proportional
to the number of turns:
Because energy is conserved, the current on the side of the transformer with
the higher voltage is smaller by the same proportion.
 Resonant Circuit
A resonant circuit is like a tuning fork: it has a very strong amplitude response at one
particular frequency, called the resonant or natural frequency. In the case of the tuning fork,
the tines vibrate strongly when excited at a frequency determined by its dimensions and the
material properties. A resonant circuit achieves the highest voltages when driven at its natural
frequency, which is determined by the value of its components. Resonant circuits use
capacitors and inductors, and therefore are also known as LC circuits. They are also known
as “tank circuits,” because of the energy storage elements present.
Capacitors store energy in the form of an electric field between
two plates separated by an insulator, known as a dielectric. The size of
the capacitor is dependent upon the size of the plates, the distance
between them, and the properties of the dielectric.
Inductors store energy in the form of a magnetic field around a
wire, or in the middle of a loop of wire.
The resonant frequency of an LC circuit, or the frequency at which the energy cycles
between the capacitor and inductor as described above, is:
Materials:
 Spark Gap
Spark gap is used as a switch to
momentarily connect the primary capacitor
to the primary coil. When the gap is shorted
the cap is allowed to discharge into the coil.
 Primary Coil
Primary coil is used with the primary capacitor to create the primary
LC tank circuit. The Primary coil also couples to the secondary coil
to transfer power from the primary to the secondary circuit.
 Secondary Coil
Secondary coil and the top load create the secondary LC tank
circuit. The secondary coil also couples to the primary coil and
transfers power from the primary circuit to the secondary circuit.
 Top Load
Top load acts as a capacitor in the secondary circuit
Calculations:
Transformer Input and Output

EPIP = ESIS
EP = primary voltage
IP = primary current in amps
ES = secondary voltage
IS = secondary current in amps
Resonant Circuit Formula
F = frequency in hertz
L = inductance in henrys
C = capacitance in farads
Spiral Coil Inductance
L = inductance of coil in microhenrys (µH)

R = average radius of the coil in inches
N = number of turns
W = width of the coil in inches
Helical Coil Inductance
L = inductance of coil in microhenrys (µH)

N = number of turns
R = radius of coil in inches (Measure from the center of the coil to the middle of the wire.)
H = height of coil in inches
Secondary Coil Dimensions
T = AH
L = length of wire in feet

D = outer diameter of coil form in inches
H = height of windings in inches
A = number of turns per inch
T = total number of turns
B = thickness of wire in inches
Energy for L and C
Capacitance Inductance
J = 0.5 V2 C J = 0.5 I2 L
J = joules of energy stored

V = peak charge voltage
I = peak current
C = capacitance in farads
L = inductance in henries
Peak values of V and I are stated in order to emphasize not to use RMS values. The energy
stored at any given time is of course: J(t) = 0.5 [V(t)]2 C and J(t) = 0.5 [I(t)]2 L
References:
 http://www.livescience.com/46745-how-tesla-coil-works.html
 http://www.teslasociety.com/teslacoil.htm
 http://powerbyproxi.com/wireless-power/
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power_transfer
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_coil
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cbMuVTNsVI
 Engineering Electromagnetics 8th edition by Hayt
 http://onetesla.com/tutorials/how-a-tesla-coil-works
 http://www.teslacoildesign.com/construction.html
 http://teslacoils4christ.org/TCFormulas/TCFormulas.htm
 http://www.deepfriedneon.com/tesla_frame6.html

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Tesla Coil Project

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Group Leader:

Gonzales, Kervin Tommy A

Brief introduction about Tesla Coil:

Setting up the tesla coil:

 Current, Magnetic Field and Induction

The basics of electromagnetism are Current, Magnetic Field and

We can coil the wire to use this magnetic

A transformer takes advantage of the law of induction to step AC voltages up or down. It

An oscillating current in the primary winding establishes an oscillating magnetic field in

Transformer Input and Output

Resonant Circuit Formula

L = inductance of coil in microhenrys (µH)

Helical Coil Inductance

L = inductance of coil in microhenrys (µH)

Secondary Coil Dimensions

L = length of wire in feet

Energy for L and C

J = joules of energy stored

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