Pulsed magnetic flux compression power supplies for hypervelocity powder deposition

After reviewing the process of hypervelocity plasma deposition using augmented railgun technology, the paper presents several new concepts of pulsed rotating electric generators designed to power, on an almost continuous basis, the laboratory system designed and built at The University of Texas Center for Electromechanics (UT-CEM), which successfully validated the method and conducted proof-of-principle experiments. The two different rotating, repetitive pulsed power supplies described in the paper are: (1) an actively compensated flux compressor-alternator (actively compensated compulsator) and (2) a dc machine with series excitation, which so far did not have any application as a generator but proves, due to its self-excitation particularities, to be an almost ideal power source for the railgun. It needs to be emphasized that the augmented railgun and the actively and passively compensated compulsators represent almost mature technologies due to the continuous development of electromagnetic launch technology by the U.S. Department of Defense and especially by the U.S. Army – ready to be applied to many advanced civilian applications as it is the case with the hypervelocity powder railgun accelerators for surface conversion.