Development of a 150-kW, Battery Powered, Rapid Capacitor Charger for a Small Railgun in Burst Mode Operation at 3 RPS

“…Sealed lead acid (SLA) batteries were used in [2], but a comparable module can have as much as 17 times the mass. SLA batteries the only alternative for systems that require large currents, however for this application a modest current of 30-40A is sufficient.…”

Section: Selection Of Battery Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The use of a DC-DC converter to charge a capacitor is common, with many applications in the literature [2][3][4]. The topology used, however varies based on the application.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of a compact electrochemical energy storage to pulsed power systems

Huhman

Neri

Wetz

2013

IEEE Trans. Dielect. Electr. Insul.

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The Pulsed Power Physics Branch at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is developing a battery-powered, rep-rate charger for a 60 kJ capacitor bank. The goal is to charge a 4800 µF capacitor to 5 kV in four seconds for a fifty shot burst. A bank of LiFePO 4 batteries is used with a full H-bridge converter, a transformer, and a rectifier to transform ≈ 650 V battery voltage to a 5 kV secondary voltage. The LLC topology has been selected for the DC-DC converter, as it offers some advantages in minimizing converter weight and volume. Additionally, the LLC design enables resonant operation to switch at 50 kHz. The work to date has been focused on the design and construction of stable battery modules, and the converter design has been limited to basic circuit simulations and paper studies. Thermal management of the battery modules during operation is essential, as high temperatures will damage the cells. This work will discuss the design and testing of various cooling schemes, with results from experiments.

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“…Chaudhari in [10] demonstrated some work with an unspecified chemistry (noted as "dry cell" in the text), to charge a 300 kV pulsed power system. The energy in this system was on a relatively small scale, 108 J. Verma in [11] used unspecified rechargeable batteries in concert with a Flyback converter to charge a 1 nF capacitor to 100 kV in 250 ms, for a total stored energy of 4 J. Allen in [12,13] was the first to demonstrate repetitive rapid capacitor charging with SLA batteries on a 30 kJ capacitor bank. Finally, Holt in [14] used lithium polymer cells to charge a 50 µF capacitor to 5 kV in 500 ms, for a total stored energy of 625 J.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Progress in the development of a battery-based pulsed power system

Huhman

Wetz

2015

2015 IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Symposium (ESTS)

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The development of compact, portable pulsedpower devices is of continuing interest, and recent technological developments such as high-energy-density capacitors, the emergence of SiC high-power devices, and the combined high power and energy density in electrochemical energy storage devices present an opportunity to use these technologies in applications of interest, such as high power lasers, railguns, and microwave systems. Several challenges exist when attempting to integrate these emerging devices into the development of a compact rep-rate pulsed-power system. These include but are not limited to the input power management, DC-DC converter efficiencies, and thermal management. This paper discusses the development of a battery-powered, rep-rate charger for a 60-kJ capacitor bank, and the desire to study the feasibility of such a system, especially the efficiency and reliability of the battery packs. This paper will discuss the system design and results from experiments to date.

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Development of a 150-kW, Battery Powered, Rapid Capacitor Charger for a Small Railgun in Burst Mode Operation at 3 RPS

Cited by 9 publications

References 3 publications

IGBT Applications

IGBT Applications

Application of a compact electrochemical energy storage to pulsed power systems

Progress in the development of a battery-based pulsed power system

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