Feasibility Study of a Repetitive Inductive Pulsed Power Supply Circuit for Electromagnetic Rail-Guns

Superconducting inductive pulsed power supplies, which are used in electromagnetic rail-gun (EMRG) application, have attracted a lot of attention during recent years. In this paper, a repetitive inductive pulsed power supply circuit based on a high-temperature superconducting transformer is proposed to drive EMRG. The circuit is capable to recover the remaining energy of the system before the end of an electromagnetic launch. This is beneficial to eliminate the muzzle arc of EMRG and improve the energy transfer efficiency. In order to prove the feasibility, a 3-m-long simple EMRG model was used for simulation. The driving process of the circuit was analyzed and the output characteristics were studied. The simulation results show that the repetitive inductive pulse forming circuit is suitable for driving EMRG. Reasonable selection of circuit parameters can improve the launching performance of the system.