A theoretical basis for the optimization of electromagnetic pulse compressors using saturable ferromagnetic cores

A model of the Melville line pulse compressors, which takes into account the losses in the system, is analyzed. The ratio between consecutive capacitor values in the line, which is chosen to ensure complete energy transfer, is presented. The relationship among the total volume of core material used, overall compression ratio of the compressor, and the number of stages used is found. From this relationship it is concluded that the volume of core material will be a minimum when the compression ratio per stage is uniformly selected at value of √e=1.6487. The latter holds for any required overall compression ratio and can be achieved simply by coupling a sufficient number of stages, each with a compression ration √e, in cascade. This result is of great importance because the cost of magnetic materials used in pulse compressors usually dominates the overall cost