Commissioning Experiments at the Naval Postgraduate School Pulsed Power and EM Launch Laboratory

A new laboratory for pulsed power and electromagnetic (EM) launch research has been built and commissioned at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, USA. This facility is comprised of new, compact pulsed power modules that are 18 kJ each, as well as 1.1-MJ modules from the previous Electric Launch Facility at Kirkcudbright, Scotland. A total of 20 MJ of capacitive energy is stored to deliver pulsed, mega-ampere currents to loads, such as medium- and minor-caliber EM launchers, high-current test fixtures, and magnetic pulse generators. This equipment was recently commissioned with new instrumentation and data acquisition systems. A 5-m-long, medium caliber launcher was fired to commission the new facility, pulsed power, controls, and instrumentation. Circuit simulations compare favorably with experiments, exhibiting error on the order of 1%.