Development of 2.4 MJ capacitor bank for electro thermal propulsion technology

Summary form only given, as follows. We have developed a pulsed power system of 2.4 MJ capacitor bank for the electric gun investigation. It is made up of eight parallelled modules of the 300 kJ capacitor bank, and supplies various shape of high current pulse by changing the charging voltage, the inductance and the switching time of each module. The eight modules have been designed and manufactured for the maximum operating voltage of 22 kV, peak current of 180 kA and pulse duration of 1-2 msec. The experiments of the modules were done, and the equivalent circuit of the module was determined. The characteristics of the module was analyzed through the circuit simulation. All the modules showed good performance under the condition of charging voltage of 22 kV, inductance of 20 /spl mu/H and shorted load. The experiments of the parallelled modules with inductance of 20 /spl mu/H and load resistance of 100 mohm were conducted, where the modules were discharged simultaneously and/or in sequence. The results of the experiment were analyzed.