Capacitor bank

The usage of a single parallel conductor necessitates the need for a high current power supply to generate the magnetic field needed. To generate these large amounts of current, the most widely used source of power is a pulsed power system. A pulsed power system is able to store energy over a period of time, and allows the discharge of energy in a short amount of time to achieve a high peak power.A capacitor is able to store energy in the form of electrical charge as opposed to chemically in batteries. Eliminating the need for a chemical reaction to take place; the current may be drawn quickly to supply the amount of current needed.
The capacitor bank is constructed from 30x 400 volt 3900μF capacitors placed in parallel to achieve a bank capable of 400v and 117,000µF. The energy stored by a capacitor is given by:

The need to resist against repulsive forces (see a href="/bore">Bore) necessitated strong interconnects. Inadequate interconnects introduce problems, potentially dangerous, in the operation. Problems experienced include:

• Repulsive forces between two parallel bus bars resulted in the damage of several capacitors
• Repulsive forces between two nearby 2/0 AWG cables resulted in damage to the bus bars
• Inadequate surface preparation between a bus junction resulted in an electrical arc; severing a ¼”-20 bolt securing the 2/0 AWG cable. This bolt was located on a terminal block that couple the capacitor cathode buses to the cable.
  
  
  

Busbar was drilled from ½” aluminum bar stock. Due to the formation of oxide films on aluminum, all connections were cleaned and mating surfaces included a conductive petroleum based copper suspension to facilitate contacts with minimal resistance. The power supply is connected to the main bore (Section 2.2) through copper 0/2 cables. The cables are secured throughout and approach from opposite sides to prevent repulsive forces.
Estimated Resistance and Inductance values for this bank is at 1.6milliohms and 2.44 nanohenries (airing on the generous side). The pulse is estimated below, created using Barry Hansen's RLC Simulator. Though this dictates ideal circumstances, the information remains useful when designing the Rogowski Coil.