Explosively Pumped Flux Compression Generator - Principles of Function

Principles of Function

Magneto-explosive generators use a technique called "magnetic flux compression", which will be described in detail later. The technique is made possible when the time scales over which the device operates are sufficiently brief that resistive current loss is negligible, and the magnetic flux on any surface surrounded by a conductor (copper wire, for example) remains constant, even though the size and shape of the surface may change.

This flux conservation can be demonstrated from Maxwell's equations. The most intuitive explanation of this conservation of enclosed flux follows from the principle that any change in an electromagnetic system provokes an effect in order to oppose the change. For this reason, reducing the area of the surface enclosed by a conductor, which would reduce the magnetic flux, results in the induction of current in the electrical conductor, which tends to return the enclosed flux to its original value. In magneto-explosive generators, this phenomenon is obtained by various techniques which depend on powerful explosives. The compression process allows the chemical energy of the explosives to be (partially) transformed into the energy of an intense magnetic field surrounded by a correspondingly large electric current.