Influences of Electric Parameters of Pulsed Power Supply on Electromagnetic Railgun System

Abstract

To analyze the electric parameters of a pulsed power supply (PPS) system and their influence on muzzle velocity, a stable and reliable 200-kJ compact PPS system used for electromagnetic railgun system has been developed. The PPS system consists of ten modules, and each module is comprised of a high energy density capacitor (3270 μF/3.5 kV), 4-in thyristor, a pulse shaping inductor (1.5 μH), and a crowbar diode. At the same time, a railgun circuit model for simulation was established. In this model, velocity skin effect, current skin effect, and friction were taken into consideration. Some electromagnetic launching experiments were carried out to verify the correctness of the railgun circuit model. Influence of different electric parameters of PPS on muzzle velocity was analyzed by the computer aided circuit design program PSPICE based on this model. The parameters include capacitance, equivalent series resistance (ESR) of the capacitor, inductance, and jitter time of the thyristor. The simulation results show that the ESR is the most critical influencing factor (the deviation of velocity is −4.286% when the ESR is 5 m ). The following is the change of the capacitance (the deviation of velocity is −3.827% when the capacitance decreases to 95%C 0 ). In the meantime, the changes of the resistance of inductor do have an influence on muzzle velocity (the deviation of velocity is −0.908% when the resistance of inductor is 1 m ). However, the changes of inductance and the jitter time of the thyristor impose no significant effect on muzzle velocity. The conclusions provide reference to the overall optimization of PPS design and quality control of the manufacturing process.Index Terms-Electric parameters, electromagnetic launching (EML) properties, electromagnetic railgun (EMG), pulse forming unit (PFU), railgun circuit model.

A Fuzzy Controller for PFN Trigger Time Sequence in Electromagnetic Railgun System

“…The existence of VSE leads to a change of current distribution, in other words, it concentrates in a narrow area at the rear of the armature, which leads to a sharp increase in the contact resistance. The VSE contact resistance VSEC R is [8]…”

Investigation of Reverse Recovery Current of High-Power Thyristor in Pulsed Power Supply

“…Pulsed power supply (PPS) is widely applied in the production of nano-powder [1], drilling of hard rocks [2], electrothermal-chemical gun [3], electromagnetic railgun [4][5][6][7][8][9][10], etc. There are various energy storage ways for PPS, such as capacitor bank, homopolar generator-inductor, explosive magnetic flux compression [11].…”

“…The investigated PPS is widely applied in the electromagnetic launching (EML) field [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. There are two types of conventional PPS topologies, which are defined as type I and II PPS topologies in this paper, respectively.…”

“…The load mutation can lead to an open circuit or sharp increase in resistance of the load side, which results in instantaneous overvoltage and high current change rate di/dt in parts of pulse-shaping inductors. Due to the randomness of load mutation, a typical phenomenon in a multiple uninterruptible discharge process is that the thyristors in conventional PPS The investigated PPS is widely applied in the electromagnetic launching (EML) field [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. There are two types of conventional PPS topologies, which are defined as type Ι and ΙΙ PPS topologies in this paper, respectively.…”

Design and Development of High Current Pulse Shaping Inductor Based on Bitter Magnet Configuration for Electro Magnetic Launcher

“…The modules are integrated with Ignitrons as main switch and crowbar and a pulse shaping inductor. The pulse shaping inductor is essential to have the pulse duration to be limited to the time of propulsion of the projectile within the railgun [19].…”