Design, Construction, and Testing of an Inductive Pulsed-Power Supply for a Small Railgun

Abstract

Advances in high-power-density batteries have rekindled interest in using inductive store as a pulse compression system. Although these batteries are considered very power dense, they lack over an order of magnitude of power density to drive a deployable electric gun However, one can add an inductive circuit to a battery bank to make a hybrid system that has a much higher power density than batteries alone A battery-inductor hybrid pulsed-power supply boasts several advantages over pulsed alternators, as inductors are static and relatively easy to cool Inductors are potentially more energy dense than capacitors, making a battery-inductor hybrid pulsed-power supply an attractive alternative to capacitor-based pulsed-power supplies The opening switch has been a major obstacle in previous inductive store projects, but in simulation, a new circuit topology the Slow TRansfer of Energy Through Capacitive Hybrid (STRETCH) meat grinder greatly attenuates the problem This paper discusses the design, construction and testing of a small-scale STRETCH meat grinder system designed which was successfully used to power a miniature railgun.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA476977

Entities

People

  • A. Sitzman
  • D. Surls
  • J. Mallick

Organizations

  • University of Texas at Austin

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Alternators
  • Aluminum
  • Capacitors
  • Coaxial Cables
  • Construction
  • Couplings
  • Demonstrations
  • Energy
  • Experimental Data
  • Information Operations
  • Power
  • Power Supplies
  • Pulsed Power
  • Resistance
  • Silicon Controlled Rectifiers
  • Simulations
  • Varistors

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Educational Psychology
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.