Slow Transfer Of Energy Through Capacitive Hybrid Meat Grinder Research Articles

The Meat Grinder With SECT Circuit

The meat grinder is a basic circuit for inductive pulsed-power supply (IPPS). Based on meat grinder, the Institute of Advanced Technology proposed a circuit called the slow transfer of energy through capacitive hybrid (STRETCH) meat grinder, in which an Integrated Gate Commutated Thyristors (IGCT) is selected as the main switch. Tsinghua University proposed the STRETCH meat grinder with inverse current commutation with semiconductor devices (ICCOS) in which the main switch is replaced by a thyristor and the ICCOS subcircuit is introduced to turn off the main switch. To reduce the opening switch voltage and increase the current turning-off capacity for IPPS, this paper presents a novel circuit topology named the meat grinder with self-charged capacitor and thyristors (SECTs). The key idea of the SECT topology is to turn off the primary current by the energy transfer capacitor, which is precharged. The meat grinder with SECT has larger capacity than the STRETCH meat grinder because it replaces the IGCT with a thyristor and is simpler than the STRETCH meat grinder with ICCOS because it only needs one capacitor. The suggested circuit is more suitable for IPPS module with high energy density. Simulation and experiment have been carried out to validate the circuit.

Review of the Meat Grinder Circuits for Railguns

With inherent strengths in energy density and power density, the inductive pulsed power supplies (IPPS) have become an attractive option for the power supplies in electromagnetic launch systems. The meat grinder circuits, including the slow transfer of energy through capacitive hybrid (STRETCH) meat grinder circuit, the STRETCH meat grinder with inverse current commutation with semiconductor devices circuit, and the meat grinder with self-charged capacitor and thyristors circuit, constitute one major branch among the IPPS circuits. This paper summarizes the fundamental research work and contributions of the meat grinder circuits from the perspectives of circuit improvements, performance analysis, inductor design, module collaboration, and efficiency promotion. The future directions of single IPPS module are higher energy level, larger energy density, and higher efficiency.

Relationship Between STRETCH Meat Grinder Circuit Performances and Inductor Parameters

The slow transfer of energy through capacitive hybrid (STRETCH) meat grinder circuit is a widely used topology in inductive pulse power supply. Therefore, it is important to understand the relationship between the STRETCH meat grinder performances and the inductor parameters when improving the system performance and designing the inductor. From the perspective of inductor designing, this paper uses four indicators to present the STRETCH meat grinder performances, i.e., the charging current, the current amplification, the inductor energy density, and the discharge efficiency, and uses two indicators to present the inductor parameters, i.e., the total inductance and the ratio of the inductance $L_{1}$ to $L_{2}$ . First, the meanings of the indicators are explained or defined. Second, simulations and experiments are carried out, respectively, to analyze the trends of the four performance indicators along with the changes of two parameters indicators. Finally, both simulation and experiment results show that the increase of the total inductance leads to the decrease of the charging current and the discharge efficiency; moreover, the increase of the ratio of the inductor $L_{1}$ to $L_{2}$ leads to the increase of the current amplification and the discharge efficiency, but causes the decrease of the inductor energy density.

Determining Key Parameters for the STRETCH Meat Grinder Circuit

Slow transfer of energy through capacitive hybrid (STRETCH) meat grinder circuit, which was proposed by the Institute for Advanced Technology, added a capacitor into the traditional meat grinder circuit. Even though its energy density is slightly less than the corresponding pure inductance system, it can reduce the voltage across the opening switch and maintain the high multiplication factor of the opening current. The performance of the STRETCH meat grinder circuit depends on multiple parameters. The inductance ratio (n = L 1 /L 2 ) and the capacitance (C) are the two vital factors, which have a crucial influence on the system performance, such as the voltage over the opening switch (VSopm), the current multiplication factor (m), and the ratio of the maximum capacitive energy over the total inductive energy (η). Thorough studies have been carried out in this paper on the relationship between the above two factors and the three performance criteria. This paper also discusses and analyzes the chosen of the key parameters (n and C) for a single-stage STRETCH meat grinder with 2-mH total inductance, which is made up of two serial coils with 0.95 coupling factor. The opening current of the main switch is 1 kA, which constitutes a 1-kJ inductive pulsed-power supply. It fully takes the advantage of the STRETCH meat grinder topology, intensifies the study of the inductive pulsed-power supply with higher energies, and is easy to be utilized for practical application.

Study on the Collaborative Triggering of Multiple STRETCH Meat Grinder With ICCOS Modules

The energy density of the inductive energy storage systems is one order of magnitude higher than that of the capacitive ones. The slow transfer of energy through capacitive hybrid (STRETCH) meat grinder with inverse current commutation with semiconductor (ICCOS) devices put forward by Tsinghua University is a typical inductive pulsed-power supply for electromagnetic launch system, which has remarkable current amplification ability as a single module. However, one module cannot provide enough amplitude and width for the load current of the railgun launching. Therefore, the collaborative work of multiple inductive source modules is necessary for practical usage. In this paper, the designed inductive power supply system of about 1 MJ is composed of 40 STRETCH meat grinders with ICCOS modules. All the main switches are opened simultaneously to reduce the magnetic field coupling among the modules and make the current rising edge steep. The modules are divided into several groups. The triggering delays of the thyristors between every two adjacent groups are carefully designed. After the first triggers for all the modules, the energy stored in the capacitors can be further utilized with the second triggers. The numerical simulation results show that the appropriate collaborative triggering delay can increase the adjustability of the output current width and the second triggers can further increase the current width and the system efficiency. Therefore, the load current with flat shape, appropriate amplitude, and longer duration can be provided with modular design and collaborate triggering discharge of the multiple modules. This can provide a theoretical foundation for the future study and implementation.

System Implementation and Testing of the STRETCH Meat Grinder With ICCOS

By applying the principle of inverse current commutation with semiconductor (ICCOS) devices in a slow transfer of energy through capacitive hybrid (STRETCH) meat grinder system, a novel circuit topology called STRETCH meat grinder with ICCOS was proposed by the Tsinghua University in 2013. It can not only raise the amplitude of the opening current, but also reduce the cost of the STRETCH meat grinder circuit obviously by replacing the integrated gate-commutated thyristor (IGCT) with thyristor. This paper discusses the overall design, system implementation, and testing results of a STRETCH meat grinder with ICCOS system with roughly 1-kJ inductive energy. The load is a spiral coil with 1.4-mΩ resistance and 1.4-μH inductance. With closed-loop control strategy, the system detects the charging current of the inductors. When it reaches the designated value, the triggering signal for ICCOS is delivered and after the predefined delay time, the triggering signal for discharging the voltage on the pulseforming capacitor is delivered. The current of the inductors and the load are measured by Rogowski coils. The opening current is 1 kA and the maximum load current is close to 4 kA. All the voltages on the switches are lower than 1 kV. The experimental results are consistent with the simulated ones, which verified the correctness of the theoretical analysis and proved the applicability of the STRETCH meat grinder with ICCOS for larger energy level.

STRETCH Meat Grinder With ICCOS

Inductive pulse power supplies are of interest because their energy densities are one order of magnitude higher than those of capacitive power supplies, based on the same power-output capacity. The Institute of Advanced Technology puts forward an inductive pulse power topology called the slow transfer of energy through capacitive hybrid (STRETCH) meat grinder. In this topology, an active switch is used to cut off the charging current. Limited by the current turning off ability of integrated gated commuted thyristor, it may encounter difficulties in extending to higher-energy systems. Other than that, the cost of the system is very high. In this paper, the principle of the STRETCH meat grinder is presented. Then, the STRETCH meat grinder with inverse current commutation with semiconductor devices (ICCOS), which is proposed by the Institute of Saint Louis, is presented. The process of ICCOS in the STRETCH meat grinder is illustrated in detail. Finally, simulations are made based on Simplorer 8 to explain how ICCOS works clearly. A preliminary discussion of how to design ICCOS is also presented. We conclude that the STRETCH meat grinder with ICCOS removes the limitations of the original one and has potential applications for high-energy systems in future and can cut down the cost greatly.

Design, Construction, and Testing of an Inductive Pulsed-Power Supply for a Small Railgun

Advances in high-power-density batteries have rekindled interest in using inductive store as a pulse compression system. Although these batteries are considered very power dense, they lack over an order of magnitude of power density to drive a deployable electric gun. However, one can add an inductive circuit to a battery bank to make a hybrid system that has a much higher power density than batteries alone. A battery-inductor hybrid pulsed-power supply boasts several advantages over pulsed alternators, as inductors are static and relatively easy to cool. Inductors are potentially more energy dense than capacitors, making a battery-inductor hybrid pulsed-power supply an attractive alternative to capacitor-based pulsed-power supplies. The opening switch has been a major obstacle in previous inductive store projects, but in simulation, a new circuit topology-the Slow Transfer of Energy Through Capacitive Hybrid (STRETCH) meat grinder-greatly attenuates the problem. This paper discusses the design, construction, and testing of a small-scale STRETCH meat grinder system, which was successfully used to power a miniature railgun