Design And Construction Of A 10 Joule Magnetic Pulse Compression System

Techniques for using magnetic switches (or saturable reactors) in pulse compression lines are being investigated at the Westinghouse Science and Technology Center (STC). Magnetic compression systems allow AC power to be converted directly to repetitive pulses using only passive components. A system has been designed to accept 60 Hz AC voltage and produce single polarity pulses at a repetition rate of 60 pps. Five switching stages were designed to provide an overall compression factor (gain) of 3333 (5 /spl mu/s output pulses). The first stage has a gain of 10, and the remaining 4 stages each have a gain of 4.3. Nominal input parameters are 50 to 130 Vrms at 60 Hz. A resonant charging scheme increases the voltage prior to compression. Computer simulations will be discussed and compared with single stage experimental data.