Pulse power system is widely used for medical, industrial and military applications. The operational principle of the pulse power system is that the energy from the input source is stored in the capacitor bank or superconducting inductive device through a dc-dc converter. Then, when a discharging signal exists, the stored energy is released to the load through pulse forming network (PFN) generating high peak power pulse up to gigawatts within several tens of or hundreds of microseconds. The pulse power system has been originally developed for the defense application. After the format of the voltage compression and voltage addition stages for the short-pulse high power acceleration has been established, it has been evolved to be common. Then, its application has been extended to food processing, medical equipment sterilization and wastewater treatment since many present environmental problems have been known in the early 70's or even earlier. In addition, the pulse power system is newly spotlighted due to the recent world events. The application examples are to treat anthrax-contaminated mail, and the use of accelerators to produce high power X-rays for security screening. Furthermore, the pulse power system has been applied for the tactical weapon system such as electrothermal-chemical (ETC) gun, coilgun and active armor system. Because the pulse power system applied for the tactical weapon system has the potential to be integrated in the military vehicle, a compact, lightweight pulse power system is strongly required for the future weapon system. In this thesis, a distributed power system (DPS) for the capacitor charger is introduced for the application of the active armor system. Furthermore, a design methodology is presented for the front-end converter to achieve the high efficiency as well as the high power density. Design parameters are identified and their impact on the design result is studied. the optimal operating point is determined based on the loss comparison between different operating points. In order to further improve the power density utilizing the unique operation mode i.e. pulse power operation, transformer design using amorphous-based core is provided and the design result is compared with that using ferrite-based core. A 5 kW prototype converter is built up and the experimentation is performed to verify the design. / Master of Science

This paper presents a methodology for optimizing the distribution transformers project, considering the capitalized cost, employing concurrently in your project amorphous core and insulating vegetable oil. The use of amorphous core technology provides a significant reduction of the load losses as the use of the insulating vegetable oil which is a non-toxic fluid and rapidly biodegradable when in contact with the environment, it allows increasing the machine's operating temperature . The use of these two materials have provided considerable percentage improvements in efficiency and cost / power compared to conventional distribution transformers manufactured. The methodology is aimed to create and select designs that have a lower total cost, namely the sum of the transformer manufacturing cost capitalized cost of losses during the useful life envisaged for the equipment. In addition, it presents the case study of a 75 kVA designed distribution transformer and manufactured with amorphous core and insulating vegetable oil, routine employed optimization (developed in VBA Excel), the theoretical results obtained from the optimized design and the experimental results. / Este trabalho apresenta uma metodologia de otimização do projeto de transformadores de distribuição, considerando o custo capitalizado, que empregam concomitantemente em seu projeto núcleo amorfos e óleo vegetal isolante. O emprego da tecnologia de núcleo amorfo proporciona significativa redução das perdas em vazio, enquanto a utilização do óleo vegetal isolante, que é um fluído não tóxico e de rápida biodegradação quando em contato com o meio ambiente, possibilita o aumento da temperatura de operação do equipamento. A utilização desses dois materiais propiciaram melhoras percentuais consideráveis na eficiência e na relação custo/potência em comparação aos transformadores de distribuição convencionalmente fabricados. A metodologia visa criar e selecionar projetos que tenham um menor custo total, ou seja, a soma do custo de fabricação do transformador com o custo capitalizado das perdas durante a vida útil considerada para o equipamento.Além disso, é apresentado o estudo de caso de um transformador de distribuição de 75 kVA projetado e fabricado com o núcleo amorfo e óleo vegetal isolante, a rotina de otimização empregada (desenvolvida em VBA Excel), os resultados teóricos obtidos a partir do projeto otimizado e os resultados experimentais.