Publications

Ferrite Solutions for Electromagnetic Shock Lines

Coleman, Phillip D.; Dudley, Mark D.; Primm, Paul P.

The goal of this work is to develop tools and test procedures for identifying ferrites suitable for use in shock line applications. Electromagnetic shocklines have been used to provide fast rising voltage pulses for many applications. In these applications a slow rising pulse is injected into the line where currents drive the ferrites into saturation leading to a fast rising output pulse. A shockline’s unique capabilities could be applied to new detonator configurations. A properly conditioned voltage pulse is critical for fire set applications. A carefully designed shockline could provide a passive solution to generating a fast rising voltage pulse for the fire set. Traditional circuits use ferrites operating in a linear regime. Shock lines push the ferrites well into the nonlinear regime where very few tools and data currently exist. Ferrite material is key to the operation of these shock lines, and tools for identifying suitable ferrites are critical. This report describes an experimental setup to that allows testing of ferrite samples and comparison to models with the goal of identifying optimal ferrites for shockline use.