Pulsed power systems consist of a capacitor bank, an isolated high-voltage
charging power-supply, high-current bus-work for charging and discharging,
and a control system. In such pulsed power systems, the operating-lifetime
of the capacitors is closely dependent on the voltage reversal. Hence, most
capacitor-discharging systems include crowbar circuits.
The crowbar circuit prevents the capacitor recharging with reverse voltage.
Usually, it consists of crowbar resistors and high pulse-current diode-sta
cks connected in series. The requirements for the diode-stacks are fast-rec
overy time and high-voltage and large-current ratings, which results in the
high cost of the pulsed-power system.
This paper presents a protection scheme of a charging and discharging syste
m of a 500 kJ capacitor bank using a low-cost crowbar circuit and safety-fu
ses.