Design of Superconducting Energy-storage Pulsed Power Supply for Railgun

According to the application requirements of the railgun, we put forward a novel circuit topology of superconducting magnetic energy storage(SMES) pulsed power supply based on STRETCH meat grinder circuit to solve the problems of eliminating arc at the inductive energy storage pulsed power muzzle and residual energy recovery. The simulation model of pulse power supply and simple railgun is established. In the simulation, the rail current is reduced to zero before the armature out of the muzzle and the energy is recovered. In addition, the influences of the parameter of capacitance and the termination of the discharge time on the system performance are analyzed. The results of simulation and experiment show that four kinds of operating modes, including charging, discharging, termination of discharging, and energy recovery, can be realized through the topology. In the experiment, the current pulses with amplitude within 166 A are achieved when the charge current value is 16.48 A. Through the termination of discharging and energy recovery process, the final feedback current reaches 11.2 A, and the system energy loss is reduced by 45.78%. The design of capacitor parameters should be considered in the voltage stress and the requirements for pulse current waveforms. The termination of the discharge time should be as late as possible under consideration of delay.