Construction of a Pulsed Magnetic Field System for Regulating Strongly Dissipative Plasmas

Pulsed magnetic field applied to controlling the dissipative plasma around spacecrafts may alleviate the blackout in communication. To validate it in the laboratory, a pulsed magnetic field system operated by a pulsed current derived from a novel power supply system to a magnetic coil with a special runway shape is constructed. The magnetic field with a flattop 12 ms and a minimum magnitude ~2 T during flattop is generated. The magnet is mounted inside of the cylindrical shell with a cone-shaped head to simulate the spacecraft. To improve the energy efficiency, an innovative power supply with multiple capacitors is proposed to generate a pulsed current with a flattop by discharging capacitors sequentially. Two thyristors are put in series as the main switches and a crowbar module is used to prevent current reversal. The target field was evaluated through a coupled transient analysis of the magnet and the power supply system. The thermal load and structural strength of the magnet were also studied through the coupled field analyses under both the normal operation and one extreme condition.