Improved Magneto-Cumulative Generator Performance by Using Variable Bitter Coil-Type Stator Windings

The authors present a conceptual approach to improve the yield, efficiency, and pulse shape characteristics from an explosively-driven magneto-cumulative generator (MCG). We propose that a Bitter coil with tailored and configurable electromagnet windings and insulation be used for the MCG stator. Several features of Bitter coil construction lend themselves as design solutions for a number of inherent MCG problems. Standard Bitter coils have been used for decades to conduct high currents and produce correspondingly high magnetic fields. The Bitter coil is a series of conducting annular disks of considerable conducting cross-section. An azimuthal sector of conductor is removed from each annulus, which permits a break point for an axial "jumper" to connect each turn to its neighbor. The disks are stacked with interleaved insulation. For MCG application, the windings of the Bitter coil can in principle be modified, turn-by-turn, to change each winding's inner and outer radius and thickness, as well as the material, size, shape, and spacing of the interleaving insulation. This design variability seems to solve a number of performance problems of conventional MCGs. The authors have searched the open available technical literature and have not found any MCG research using this approach. Fabricating a Bitter coil-type stator may have been previously impractical, but with the advent of computer-numerical-controlled shop machines the lack of ease to fabricate such a stator may no longer be a hurdle for its use.