Minimizing the mass of a potential railgun power supply
- IAP Research, Inc., Dayton, OH (United States)
This paper reports on the design of a pulsed power supply to deliver 5 MJ at 1 MA at 1 shot per second to a railgun. The supply stores energy at low current in the primary of the hydrogen-cooled transformer. A switch opens the primary circuit to transfer energy to the secondary, stepping the current up to 1 MA. The authors are studying the relationship between the transformer and switch to determine how the total power supply mass can be minimized. Vacuum interrupters and gate-turn-off thyristors are used in the switch. Switch mass dominates the system, accounting for 85% of the total mass. The switch must absorb the uncoupled energy of the transformer. Low transformer coupling requires large capacitors. Even with high coupling, capacitors account for 75 to 85% of the switch mass. If transformer coupling increases, the uncoupled energy decreases, resulting in low capacitor mass.
- OSTI ID:
- 5722631
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9004136-; CODEN: IEMGA; TRN: 92-009465
- Journal Information:
- IEEE Transactions on Magnetics (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States), Vol. 27:1; Conference: 5. IEEE symposium on electromagnetic launcher technology, Destin, FL (United States), 1-5 Apr 1990; ISSN 0018-9464
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
PULSED REACTORS
DESIGN
RAILGUN ACCELERATORS
POWER SUPPLIES
TRANSFORMERS
COOLING
CAPACITORS
HYDROGEN
MASS
MINIMIZATION
PLASMA ACCELERATION
PLASMA SWITCHES
THYRISTORS
ACCELERATION
ACCELERATORS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
NONMETALS
REACTORS
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SWITCHES
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