Capacitors in a multiphase voltage multiplier?

[carmatic]

what should be the ratio between the capacitance of the capacitors in the three AC lines , and that of the capacitors in the DC line at the bottom?
should all the capacitors be the same value ... even though there are AC lines, with an identical capacitor in each of them, the total 'linear' capacitance would be multiplied by three, but then again the DC line fluctuates at three times the rate, so charge leaves and enters the DC capacitors 3 times for every time that it happens once on an AC line

also, what is the function of the capacitors in the DC line? i have found that if these capacitors are deleted and replaced with no connection, the open-circuit voltage at the output of the multiplier will increase...

 

[anorlunda]

You could have found the answer on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_multiplier

Assuming that the peak voltage of the AC source is +Us, and that the C values are sufficiently high to allow, when charged, that a current flows with no significant change in voltage, then the (simplified) working of the cascade is as follows: