Repetitive energy transfers from an inductive energy store

By producing a pulse train with a peak power of 75 MW at a pulse repetition rate of 5 kpps in a one-ohm load system, the fully-controlled, high-power, high-repetition-rate operation of an inductive energy storage and transfer system with survivable switches was demonstrated. Triggered vacuum gap switches were used as repetitive, current-zero opening switches and several repetitive transfer circuits using the counterpulse technique were developed. The switching and transfer process is analyzed and the dependency of the output pulse risetime on specific load conditions is determined. Repetitive railgun operation was enabled (in theory) by developing transfer circuits capable of recovering the energy remaining in the load inductance after each output pulse.