High Current Cooled Flexible Bus Work Systems

Proposed is an innovative solution for continued development and testing of a cooled high-current bus system. Higher Power Engineering (HPE) proposes to further design and develop a system proposed under Phase I of this work. It utilizes oil cooling and also provides compact electrical insulation to excel well beyond the required 10kV of the Topic. The concept is based on well-known and proven design. The approach will concentrate on providing a high level movement for connection of the Navy rail gun and its expected recoil action. The design is based on provided performance calculations of a system which addresses skin effect, magnetic forces, and thermal issues of the bus. The device can flex to move for recoil actions of the rail gun. HPE performed similar cooled bus systems for the Navy under previous contracts in the past and so can offer that experience to enhance the feasibility of a successful program. The Phase II effort will provide a design and technical evaluation of the proposed system major components. The Phase II Option program will construct and test a bus prototype. The entire program is conceived to provide a firm foundation for a full-scale working product under program funding.