Review of Inductive Pulsed Power Generators for Railguns

This paper addresses inductive pulsed power generators and their major components. Different inductive storage designs, such as solenoids, toroids, and force-balanced coils, are briefly presented and their advantages and disadvantages are mentioned. Special emphasis is given to inductive circuit topologies, which have been investigated in railgun research, such as the XRAM, meat grinder, or pulse transformer topologies. One section deals with opening switches as they are indispensable for inductive storages and another one deals briefly with superconducting magnetic energy storage for pulsed power applications. Finally, the most relevant inductor systems, which have been realized with respect to railgun research, are summarized in Table I, together with their main characteristics.