Investigation Of Battery Charged Capacitor Pulsed Power Systems for Electromagnetic Launcher Experiments

Candidate pulsed power systems for electromagnetic launchers (EMLs) constitute, two broad categories: rotating machinery and non-rotating devices. Rotating machinery for this purpose is under development at several industrial and educational institutions around the world. Non-rotating hardware includes capacitors, batteries, and inductors. These too are the subject of research programs, but as yet, are much larger than rotating supplies of equal power and energy capability. In 1988, system studies [1] identified several attractive pulsed power systems for EMLs. Battery charged capacitor pulsed power systems were among those identified as promising for EML systems. The basic equations governing the battery charging capacitor sequence and the capacitor discharge into an EML are the subject of this paper. A battery charged capacitor system powering an EML has also been built. This experiment not only validates the systern concept with presently available hardware, but can be used to establish a baseline for evaluation of future systems when technology in capacitor and battery power and energy densities improve.