Converters for Supplying Pulsed Power Loads

There is a growing need for supplying repetitive pulsed power loads of increasing magnitudes up to several hundred megawatts or more in areas of radar, lasers, high-energy physics experiments and thermonuclear fusion. The nature of such loads can be expected to be as diverse as their applications. The pulsed power demands and corresponding reactive volt-amperes requirements are undesirable from the frequency and voltage fluctuation standpoint, even for the large utility power systems. Techniques for supplying large dc-pulsed loads from a relatively small size ac generator by means of inductive storage and the capacitor commutated converters are presented. A theoretical basis is provided for analyzing the converters which serve to minimize the effects of pulsed power and corresponding reactive volt-amperes. Energy transfer between the storage inductor and the pulsed load is permitted with minimal loss, at a readily controllable rate including the reversibility of power in case of inductive loads. Use of a simple control scheme is shown to provide a precise load voltage regulation which may be a requirement for certain applications. The greatest use of these circuits would be in supplying loads with pulse durations of a few milliseconds to many seconds or minutes.