A cost effective battery bank for I sup 2 t testing and evaluation of electrical switchgear

Conference · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1989

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/FUSION.1989.102179· OSTI ID:5453896

Reass, W A

This paper describes the electrical design and mechanical construction of a 50 kA step switched'' battery bank. Individual fuses protect each of the forty parallel isolated strings of three series (12 V) batteries. Step current waveforms of 12.5 kA, 25 kA, 37.5 kA, and 50 kA are produced by 8 sets of pneumatically driven 20 pole step switches and current limiting stainless steel trombone'' resistors. Inexpensive, yet conservatively designed, Group 65 Motorcraft car batteries are used to give an I{sup 2}t capability of better than 5 {times} 10{sup 9}. The battery bank has well over 1500 shots, with testing of commercial switchgear continuing. In addition to the battery bank engineering data, results of repetitive testing of vacuum interrupters at their I{sup 2}t limit will be provided. 8 figs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/ER
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 5453896
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-89-3277; CONF-891007-58; ON: DE90002350; TRN: 89-029903
• Resource Relation: Conference: 13. international symposium on fusion engineering, Knoxville, TN (USA), 2-6 Oct 1989
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ELECTRIC BATTERIES
EVALUATION
SWITCHING CIRCUITS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
COST
POWER SUPPLIES
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
TESTING
700209* - Fusion Power Plant Technology- Component Development & Materials Testing