Date of Award

Summer 1984

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Program/Concentration

Electrical Engineering

Committee Director

G. Marshall Molen

Committee Member

John Kuhlman

Committee Member

Griffith McRee

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.E55B37

Abstract

High-pressure spark gap switches are often used in pulsed power systems because of their high power capabilities. Unfortunately, these switches cannot be operated at high repetition rates because of the time required for the switch to recover. However, the recovery rate of a spark gap may be improved by flowing a gas through the interelectrode region so as to remove the hot gases and debris.

A test facility has been designed and constructed at Old Dominion University to evaluate the performance of gas-flow spark gap switches operating over a wide range of voltages and flow parameters. The facility consists of a pulsed power system to which the switch can be attached and tested under various flow conditions. The gas flow is provided by one of two wind tunnels which comprise the remainder of the facility. The experiments, which are to be conducted using the facility, are of interest to the development of high power switches for applications such as lasers and accelerators.

The pulsed power system, which is the topic of this thesis, is designed to deliver two identical voltage pulses to the switch. The maximum amplitude of each pulse is 250 kV, and the minimal interval between the pulses is nominally 100 /LS corresponding to a repetition rate of 10 kHz. At the maximum voltage, the peak switch current is so kA with a nominal pulse width of 50 ns.

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DOI

10.25777/8ers-sw88

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