Analysis of Energy Conversion Efficiency of a Capacitor-Based Pulsed-Power System for Railgun Experiments

Abstract

To analyze the stored-to-kinetic energy conversion efficiency, a transient electric-circuit model for a railgun system is built using the electrical circuit analysis software SIMPLORER in this paper, and the electric parameters of the model are defined with measurement values of the actual system. Many results of simulations and experiments are also presented, and the results show that the equivalent series resistance of the coaxial cables and the rail resistance are major factors on the energy conversion efficiency. In the end, some methods are proposed to improve energy conversion efficiency of the pulsed-power supply system.