Title :
A Battery Powered, 200-KW Rapid Capacitor Charger for a Portable Railgun in Burst Mode Operation at 3 RPS
Author :
Allen, Raymond ; Neri, Jesse
Author_Institution :
Naval Res. Lab. Washington, Washington
Abstract :
A portable power supply is being developed to rapidly charge the capacitor bank of a low velocity railgun system for countermeasure deployment from aircraft and watercraft. The goal is charge a 15-mF capacitor bank to 2.3 kV in 200 ms to allow countermeasure deployment in bursts of several rounds at a rate of 3 RPS (rounds per second). Due to possible use aboard aircraft, components where chosen to minimize weight and volume. For this reason, as well as for simplicity and to reduce cost, a series bank of special, high-current lead-acid batteries was chosen as the source of prime power. The 192-V voltage of the battery bank is boosted to 2 kV using a forward converter comprised of four IGBT switches in an H-bridge configuration, a ferrite-core step-up transformer, and a full wave rectifier.
Keywords :
battery chargers; capacitors; lead acid batteries; marine vehicles; power semiconductor switches; power supplies to apparatus; railguns; H-bridge configuration; IGBT switches; aircraft; burst mode operation; capacitor bank; ferrite-core step-up transformer; full wave rectifier; lead-acid batteries; low velocity railgun system; portable power supply; rapid capacitor charger; watercraft; Aircraft; Batteries; Capacitors; Costs; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Power supplies; Railguns; Rectifiers; Switches; Switching converters;
Conference_Titel :
Plasma Science, 2007. ICOPS 2007. IEEE 34th International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Albuquerque, NM
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-0915-0
DOI :
10.1109/PPPS.2007.4346173
