Power Conversion Circuits

Power converter circuits are often the most overlooked aspect of a system. During the engineering phase, power is not a concern. There are plenty of bench power supplies scattered around the laboratory for use in breadboarding. Even in SPICE, the trusty voltage source element provides infinite voltage and infinite current for new circuit designs. 

Luckily, there are circuits that fill all of the power requirements listed above and more. SPICE can be an indispensable tool for designing, troubleshooting, and characterizing power conversion circuits. 

A simple definition of a power conversion circuit is a circuit that converts a power source of a certain characteristic (e.g., 110 V AC battery voltage, spacecraft bus) into a power source with a more desirable characteristic (e.g., regulated +5V DC for digital logic, constant current sources). A wide variety of these circuits are presented in this chapter. 

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Figure 3.2 Switch-mode power-conversion circuit topologies and their associated maximum voltage and current stress. Note n, = n and Oj = n. ...

The inherent safety features of the MARS are in many respects defined by the used combination of coolant and fuel properties, as well as by the selection of a working medium in the power conversion circuit. 

The reference MSFR is a 3-GWth reactor with a total fuel salt volume of 18 operated at a maximum fuel salt temperature of 750°C (Mathieu et al., 2009 Merle-Lucotte et al., 2012). The system includes three circuits the fuel circuit, the intermediate circuit, and the power conversion circuit. The fuel circuit, defined as the circuit containing the fuel salt during power generation, includes the core cavity, the inlet and outlet pipes, a gas injection system, salt-bubble separators, pumps, and fuel heat exchangers. 

Pool thermosiphon Power conversion circuit Intermediate circuit Fuel circuit Pool... 

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