MHD pulsed power generation - land systems UK.

In the UK MHD power generation is being addressed for a number of tactical land-based systems in a collaborative programme with universities and MOD research establishments. These pulsed systems are designed to produce megajoules of energy on time scales of microseconds to seconds, which require minimal further conditioning before matching to the weapon impedance. Two broad categories are considered - propellant combustion devices, and explosive shaped charge plasma shock devices. Theory, prediction and initial validation on experimental configurations are described. The results to date are promising and show correlation between theory and practice. A programme of system development and device optimisation is continuing.