Power Conditioning Systems for High-Power, Airborne, Pulsed Applications

The power conditioning portion of the high-power study that was performed for the Air Force Aeropropulsion Laboratory by the State University of New York at Buffalo is summarized. This effort defines the power conditioning system and critical component developments which will be required to interface the airborne 10-MW to 50-MW sources defined under separate study efforts with certain loads. Power conditioning systems are considered for use with magnetohydrodynamic generators and turbine driven alternators, both conventional and superconducting. The critical components required for each of the power conditioning systems are identified and then analyzed. The component analyses include estimations of development efforts necessary and of specific weights and volumes for components. The primary components considered are transformers (for alternator as well as for inverter use), switches, capacitors, and inductors. Weight algorithms are developed for each of the components. Following the component analyses, subsystems such as inverters and rectifier and filter packages are considered. The data for the various components and subsystems are then utilized for a comparison of the power conditioning techniques to be used with the various power sources. The weights and volumes of power conditioning systems for 8-point designs (8 variations of power, voltage, duty cycle, and total run time) are derived.