Design, Simulation, And Testing Of A Pulse Forming Network- Transformer Power Supply For The Texas Tech Railgun

A pulse forming network (PFN) has been designed and built to supply tunable, pulsed, high current waveforms to the railgun at Texas Tech University. The system uses a 11 kV, 500 kJ capacitor bank with a pulsed coulomb transformer to provide up to 1 MA of current. The transformer allows for lower voltage operation and higher coulomb transfer at the railgun load. The waveform may be tuned over a limited range to optimize the power supply output to the time varying railgun load. Design and computer simulation results will be provided along with limited performance results.