Block-diagram method of analysis applied to the saturable reactor

The saturable-reactor class of magnetic amplifiers has recently received considerable attention as the subject of new analyses efforts.1,2 Although the saturable reactor antedates the self-saturating class of magnetic amplifiers, it is by no means functionally simpler and does not afford the easiest starting point for a general analysis of magnetic amplifiers. Therefore, in a previous paper,3 the author introduced a block-diagram method of analysis as applied to the self-saturating class of magnetic amplifiers. It was shown that both half-cycle response circuits and conventional full-wave circuits can be analyzed by a single theory and that, in fact, the two differ only by the amount of feedback present. As an extension of the block-diagram method of analysis to the saturable reactor, this paper is intended to lend further support to the premise that all classes of magnetic amplifiers are basically of the same genus and therefore should be describable by a single theory. The use of the block diagram is particularly effective in clarifying the relationship between the saturable-reactor class and the self-saturating class of magnetic amplifiers.