Current Interruption at Powers up to 1 GW with Crossed-Field Tubes

This paper describes the current interruption and voltage holdoff capabilities of a wide range of crossed-field tubes (XFTs). The XFTs investigated have active electrode areas ranging from 96 to 8000 cm2 with mean diameters from 2 to 56 cm. For the larger XFTs, currents up to 10 kA have been interrupted at voltages up to 100 kV, corresponding to a switched power of 1 GW. Experiments have shown the peak interruptible current to vary linearly with tube radius. The mechanism responsible for the limitation may be related to the self-generated magnetic field, but other factors are also shown to play a role.