A new look at the energy efficiency of a series magnetic pulse compressor with resistive losses

In high repetition rate magnetic pulse compressors, even small increases of energy efficiency are very important. In this paper, the energy efficiency in a magnetic pulse compression loop is defined as the ratio between the accumulated energy in the final capacitor (C2) and the initial energy in the first capacitor (C1). The maximization of the energy efficiency does not correspond to the total discharge of the first capacitor, such as others authors have stated. An expression for the energy efficiency (/spl epsi/), as a function of k=C1/C2, is demonstrated. The graphical representations show that the /spl epsi/ maximization is obtained for k>1, such that a progressively decrease of the capacitors in the compression chain is needed. The energy efficiency is in this case with up to 20% greater than that of the other theory. Another very important advantage of the authors' theory is demonstrated: the voltage level, remains practically unchanged all along the series magnetic pulse compression circuit.