200 kj copper foil fuses. Final report

Technical Report · Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:6383402

McClenahan, C R; Goforth, J H; Degnan, J H; Henderson, R M; Janssen, W H

A 200-kJ, 50-kV capacitor bank has been discharged into 1-mil-thick copper foils immersed in fine glass beads. These foils ranged in length from 27 to 71 cm and in width from 15 to 40 cm. Voltage spikes of over 250 kV were produced by the resulting fuse behavior of the foil. Moreover, the current turned off at a rate that was over 6 times the initial bank dI/dt. Full widths at half maxima for the voltage and dI/dt spikes were about 0.5 microsec, with some as short as 300 nanosec. Electrical breakdown was prevented in all but one size fuze with maximum applied fields of 7 kV/cm. Fuses that were split into two parallel sections have been tested, and the effects relative to one-piece fuses are much larger than would be expected on the basis of inductance differences alone. A resistivity model for copper foil fuses, which differs from previous work in that it includes a current density dependence, has been devised. Fuse behavior is predicted with reasonable accuracy over a wide range of foil sizes by a quasi-two-dimensional fuse code that incorporates this resistivity model. A variation of Maisonnier's method for predicting optimum fuze size has been derived. This method is valid if the risetime of the bank exceeds 3 microsec, in which case it can be expected to be applicable over a wide range of peak current densities.

• Research Organization: Computer Sciences Corp., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6383402
• Report Number(s): AD-A-115170/3
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
ELECTRIC FUSES
DESIGN
PERFORMANCE
CAPACITORS
COPPER
DENSITY
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ENERGY STORAGE
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FOILS
GLASS
INDUCTION
MAGNETIC FIELDS
OPTIMIZATION
SWITCHES
THICKNESS
CONDUCTOR DEVICES
DATA
DIMENSIONS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT PROTECTION DEVICES
INFORMATION
METALS
NUMERICAL DATA
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
STORAGE
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
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