Development and properties of a 500KJ pulsed power supply

A500kJ capacitive pulsed power supply (PPS), consisting of one constant current charger and two pulsed power modules (PPM), has been designed and developed. The energy storage density of the whole PPS is about 1MJ/m³. The output current of the constant current charger in the PPS is over 12A, and this device has floating charge function for capacitors when the PPS is in the process of waiting trigger discharge. The PPS can work independently or as a basic unit in a large pulsed power supply system used for electromagnetic launch (EML). The main components in a PPM are energy storage capacitor (10kV/250kJ), pulse-shaping inductor (50μH), pulse thyristor and crowbar diode. In this paper we describe the structural characteristics of 250kJ PPM and the design features of its main components. The test operation result of 250kJ PPM is also given. Test results show that the PPM´s output peak current is nearly 90kA.