Power conditioning for coil launchers: Adaptation of low di/dt thyristors to circuits with high di/dt requirements

N. Goradia, Z. Zabar, E. Levi, L. Birenbaum

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

This paper concerns the thyristors used in electromagnetic coilguns as switching elements for discharging capacitors through the drive coils. In an electromagnetic launcher, the di/dt requirement may exceed 4000 A/μsec. Today, off-the-shelf thyristors can handle only up to 1000 A/μsec. An analytical/experimental study was conducted in which a saturable reactor was inserted into a drive-coil circuit in order to reduce the rate-of-rise of current during turn-on at a relatively high frequency of about 10 kHz. The reactor functions by being effective only during the turn-on time, then saturates, thus removing itself from the circuit. This paper presents laboratory test results for several different sizes of toroidal cores, describes the computer simulation of a one-drive-coil circuit with saturable reactor, and includes detailed guidelines for selecting a magnetic core.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages776-779
Number of pages4
StatePublished - 1993
EventProceedings of the 1993 9th IEEE International Pulsed Power Conference. Part 2 (of 2) - Albuquerque, NM, USA
Duration: Jun 21 1993Jun 23 1993

Other

OtherProceedings of the 1993 9th IEEE International Pulsed Power Conference. Part 2 (of 2)
CityAlbuquerque, NM, USA
Period6/21/936/23/93

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Power conditioning for coil launchers: Adaptation of low di/dt thyristors to circuits with high di/dt requirements'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this