Performance analysis of passive compulsators used for EML application with different compensation shield thickness

Abstract

Compulsators (Compensated Pulsed Alternators) are AC generators which are used for the electromagnetic launch (EML) applications over the last few decades. Passive compulsator consists of a compensating shield which is placed in the vicinity of the armature conductors. In the present work, a passive compulsator has been designed to drive a railgun which was built and tested with a capacitor bank of 20 kJ in the author's laboratory. The effect of variation of the thickness of the compensating shield on the performance on the system is discussed in this paper. Performance analysis is done for a number of designs with different thickness of the compensation shield, out of which, two designs were selected, modeled and analyzed with a commercially available FEM based package. Only electromagnetic and electromechanical effects are considered in this paper.