Design of a 40 megawatt homopolar generator

Westinghouse Electric Corporation has designed, under contract to Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International, an iron-core homopolar generator rated at over 40 megawatts. The generator has been designed for up to 5 seconds of continous operation at this level, which makes it well suited to the pulse compression duty required for electromagnetic launchers and other applications. The generator utilizes beryllium-copper for the rotor conductor to achieve a compromise between the strength necessery for high speed application and for conductivity. The beryllium-copper rotor conductor also acts as a heat-sink to protect the current collection brushes as the ohmic and frictional heating builds during the output pulse. The generator can operate at current outputs up to 2.0 mega-amperes because of this feature. The generator has been designed to match a 55000 horsepower liquid oxygen/JP4 turbine drive, but could also be operated in an inertial mode.