Design and Manufacture of a 100kA Coaxial Pulsed Power Cable for Plasma Generator and PPS in ETC Guns

Abstract

Based on our previous pulsed current and internal overvoltage test data and the experience of common commercial high power cables, a 100kA coaxial pulsed power cable is designed and manufactured to adapt the coaxial electric energy breech transmission between the plasma generator and the pulsed power supply (PPS) in electrothermal-chemical (ETC) guns. The index parameters are analyzed and determined. Semi-conductor layers and a shield stiffener are introduced to prevent the deformation and burst of the pulsed power cable structurally. The semi-conductor layer can eliminate the air gap and balance the electric field in the cable. The shield stiffener can multiply the mechanical strength to restrain the strong electrodynamic force produced by the core dislocation of the outer conductor. The multi-coupling of electromagnetic field, stress field and thermal field analysis are established to assist in aided design of electrical strength, mechanical strength and temperature rise characteristics. Both a DC voltage withstand test and pulsed discharge tests are introduced to verify and inspect the performance and dynamic response of the pulse power cable. The 25kV/5min DC voltage withstand test result shows that the sample leakage current is nearly 3μA and no abnormal phenomena of the pulsed power cable sample occurred. The pulsed discharge tests show that the sample can sustain the 100kA peak current. Furthermore, this 100kA coaxial pulsed power cable can satisfy the ETC test requirements. This paper is an extended abstract of a full paper that was published in Defence Technology, 2019.