Final design and commissioning test results for the hypervelocity launcher research complex battery power supply

摘要

The preliminary design of the battery power supply (BPS) was reported to the 6th IEEE Pulsed Power Conference [1]. In 1987, the final design was completed, assembled, and sequentially verified during approximately 1750 operational verification tests. These experiments consisted of single-string verifications at 1000 amperes to a system discharge of 21,500,000 amperes. Final system design is very similar to the preliminary design previously presented. System fabrication is complete and at the present time consists of 858, 16-battery series strings resulting in 13,728 operational batteries. The final switching design has evolved into several levels of redundancy at varying current levels. These include 36 pneumatic, 100,000 ampere switches that control 24, 16-battery strings in parallel. These switches are used for the primary make and break of system current to charge the inductor. There are also 18 pneumatic crowbar switches at the 24-string level that are used to short the inductor from the BPS prior to system opening. At the string level there are 2000 ampere DC conductors that are used as a secondary current break and to pre-set the BPS in the appropriate parallel/series configuration prior to a discharge sequence. Explosively driven opening and closing switches are also employed at the interface junction to any hypervelocity launcher test article. These switches allow the inductor to charge prior to hypervelocity firings, are then opened for the event, and then explosively closed again to allow the inductively stored energy remaining to be dissipated in the busswork and pneumatic crowbar circuits. Detailed descriptions and operations of these switching sequences are discussed further in the switching section along with descriptions and operational data of the final hardware tested. Control system philosophy, capability, and operation during the commissioning tests are also discussed in detail. A BPS system artist's conception drawing is shown as the facility has been built, in Figure 1.