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Forces in Cylindrical Metallized Film Audio Capacitors

This paper is concerned with the analysis of forces acting in metalized polypropylene film capacitors in use in loudspeaker crossover circuits. Capacitors have been subjected to rapid discharge measurements to investigate mechanical resonance of the capacitor body and the electrical forces which drive the resonance. The force due to adjacent flat current sheets has been calculated in order that the magnitude of the electro-dynamic force due to the discharge current can be calculated and compared with the electrostatic force due to the potential difference between the capacitor plates. The electrostatic force is found to be dominant by several orders of magnitude, contrary to assumptions in previous work where the electro-dynamic force is assumed to be dominant. The capacitor is then modeled as a series of concentric cylindrical conductors and the distribution of forces within the body of the capacitor is considered. The primary outcome of this is that the electrostatic forces act predominantly within the inner and outer turn of the capacitor body, while all of the forces acting within the body of the capacitor are balanced almost to zero. Experimental results where resonant acoustic emissions have been measured and analyzed are presented and discussed in the context of the model proposed.

Authors: Duncan, Philip; Williams, Nigel; Dodds, Paul
Affiliations: ICW Ltd., Wrexham, Wales, UK; University of Salford, Greater Manchester, UK(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Convention:126 (May 2009) Paper Number:7682 Import into BibTeX
Subject:Loudspeakers

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