Maxwell Laboratories Inc, has designed and manufactured a 2.4 MJ multi
-module capacitor bank to be used for the investigation of ETC technol
ogies. The system was installed and accepted at the Royal Ordnance (R.
O.) Faldingworth facility during the fall of 1993. This paper will dis
cuss the pulsed power system design and typical test data acquired dur
ing manufacturing testing. The 2.4 MJ system is comprised of eight ind
ependent 300 kJ modules with a dual operating voltage of 11 kV and 22
kV, both voltages capable of the full 300 kJ energy storage. The capac
itor bank modularity provides the user with pulse shaping flexibility
by allowing for time-sequence firing of the eight 300 kJ units. The 2.
4 MJ system can be operated in 300 kJ increments, allowing the user to
control the energy storage volume needed for laboratory type testing.
Each 300 kJ module is a stand alone capacitor bank equipped with six
Maxwell 11/22 kV 50 kJ capacitors, two parallel output switches (Maxwe
ll Triggered Vacuum Switch, TVS-40), output inductor, trigger generato
r, energy dumping system, and Maxwell designed fiber optic control cir
cuits. This system was tested to demonstrate the overall electrical pe
rformance and power profile flexibility into a resistive load. Data wi
ll be presented to show the capacitor bank current output pulse variat
ions, both in single-shot and time-sequence operation. The data will s
how the advantages of such a capacitor bank for laboratory type experi
ments and future fieldable energy storage systems.