Compact 50 kJ pulse forming unit, switched by semiconductors

Spahn, E.; Buderer, G.; Hatterer, F.

doi:10.1109/20.364724

Cited by 23 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…At ISL, the development of compact pulsed power supplies started together with the beginning of the railgun research. A modular 50 kJ PFU, consisting of a capacitor, a pulse forming inductance, a semiconductor closing and crowbar switch assembly, was built in several versions and is one of the major achievements of the program [35]. It is successfully used in several laboratory setups and installations like the PEGASUS facility [36].…”

Section: Earlier Work At Islmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demonstration of a 1 MJ XRAM Generator Supplying a Medium Caliber Railgun

Liebfried

Brommer

2020

IEEE Access

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Section: Earlier Work At Islmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demonstration of a 1 MJ XRAM Generator Supplying a Medium Caliber Railgun

Liebfried

Brommer

2020

IEEE Access

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“…The philosophy of power supplies for railguns is to apply a pulse forming network which is built in such a way as to be highly modular and the current pulse is shaped by triggering the modules with appropriate time delays and the objective is to realize a shape as rectangular as possible [3][4][5][6][7][8].…”

Section: System Descriptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a Capacitive Pulsed Power Supply for High-Current High-Velocity Sliding Electrical Contact Studies

Xia

Chen

et al. 2008

2008 14th Symposium on Electromagnetic Launch Technology

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A pulsed power supply of a 1.5-MJ capacitor bank has been developed for high-current high-velocity sliding electrical contact studies in railgun launches. The system consists of 8 small modules, each with a capacitance of 15mF, and one large module with a capacitance of 54mF. All of nine modules use triggered spark gaps as the main switches. Various shapes of high-current pulse can be formed by controlling the charging voltage and firing time of each module. The small module has been designed for the maximum operating voltage of 5kV, the peak current of 140 kA, the pulse rise time of 0.9 ms, in which semiconducting diode stack is used as crowbar switch. Since the large module has no crowbar switch and relatively small pulse forming inductance, it can supply high-amplitude oscillating current waveform. The effects of the large module are threefold. First, the large module provides a basic current on which the currents of small modules superimpose to form a nearly constant driving current of armature. Second, the oscillating nature of the current can drastically reduce the muzzle arc current; hence suppression of the muzzle arc can be obtained. Third, the crowbar switch can be removed and therefore the cost of the system can be reduced. The experiments were performed to verify the operation performances of the two kinds of modules, where the modules were discharged simultaneously and/or sequentially. The feasibility of large module on the muzzle arc control is also examined. The results of the experiments show that a total current of 400kA with a 1.5ms flat-top time can be obtained and all the modules show good performance during the railgun firing.

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“…They have been developed during the last ten years for different pulsed-power applications and are described in [6]- [9] in detail. By using modern semiconductor switching devices 1 with very high trigger precision (jitter 50 ns), even predefined pulse-shaped currents can be generated.…”

Section: Preliminary Remarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Active armor protection-conception and design of steerable launcher systems fed by modular pulsed-power supply units

2001

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The impulsive acceleration of active protection elements such as armor plates or other terminal ballistics interception devices can preferably be realized by single-stage electromagnetic launcher systems using pancake coils. The technology with controlled multipartite coil assemblies represents a new supplementary topic in the entire field of ballistics with a high growth potential which is not yet exhausted.During the year 1999 a separate test facility with modular structured energy packs (3 50 kJ) has been built up at ISL as a basic installation for testing reinforced or armored coils and multiple-coil systems. Each power supply module comprises one energy storage capacitor, a thyristor stack adapted to maximum charging voltage, a corresponding number of crow-bar diodes and a well-designed coaxial power line serving as a pulse forming network and current limiting reactor. To provide high flexibility these modules can be triggered independently by fiber optic transmitters with an overall jitter lower than 50 ns. Three packs are designed for a maximum charging voltage of 10.75 kV. First measurements have shown that peak currents up to 120 kA per module and current slew rates of more than 2.5 kA/ s can be generated.The paper presented here describes the test facility and the prototype arrangement of a steerable launcher system with two orthogonally assembled pancake coils fed by two of the modular pulsed power supply units described above. The selection of the launch direction is defined by a short delay (only a few microseconds) between the trigger pulses, so that the usual propagation delay time implied by (mechanical) inertia will be avoided. Further on the first investigations and results concerning steerability and electromechanical efficiency will be presented.

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Compact 50 kJ pulse forming unit, switched by semiconductors

Cited by 23 publications

References 3 publications

Demonstration of a 1 MJ XRAM Generator Supplying a Medium Caliber Railgun

Demonstration of a 1 MJ XRAM Generator Supplying a Medium Caliber Railgun

Development of a Capacitive Pulsed Power Supply for High-Current High-Velocity Sliding Electrical Contact Studies

Active armor protection-conception and design of steerable launcher systems fed by modular pulsed-power supply units

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