Homopolar generator power supplies for the IGNITEX experiment

Summary Form only given, as follows. The IGNITEX toroidal field coil requires a high-power, low-impedance, 10-s, 150-MA pulse. Combined resistive and magnetic energies consumed by the coil are 9.5 GJ. To provide flexibility, a set of 12 homopolar generators (HPGs) are designed to drive the coil in parallel. Each machine stores 1 GJ, generates up to 50 V, and delivers 12.5 MA peak current to a 1/12th pie-shaped sector of the coil. Five pairs of single-turn, poloidal field coils are separately excited by five HPGs. A pulsed HPG is a low-impedance, direct-current generator that converts kinetic energy stored in a spinning rotor into a single, high current pulse. The IGNITEX generators use an iron-core magnetic circuit for voltage generation and current collection and an attached fiberglass/epoxy composite flywheel for energy storage. Relative to existing pulsed HPGs, technology requirements for the IGNITEX generators are moderate. Due to the simple nature of the proposed HPG power supplies and the relatively low grid power needs (less than 35 MW for the TF and PF generators combined) compared with conventional alternator/rectifier systems, the proposed power supply should have a low cost.<>