We need two 32μH inductors with a saturation current greater than 100A. This is going to be fun to try to make. x.x
Where do you even buy such large cores? I don't think we can use ferrite because its saturation field is so low, so it'd need to be sintered iron powder or laminated electrical steel....
turns out you can get high-flux cores without too much trouble, and we might even be able to use ungapped toroids--though we're going to have to put no less than nine stacked cores into this inductor with three turns of actual welding cable because they don't make AWG #2 magnet wire for some reason
this is going to give us an inductor core that is over a foot long and only three inches wide, which will probably look kind of silly.
plus we also already have the welding cable. it's really nice welding cable too, super flexible and has a nice 190 ampere current rating, almost double what we actually need to use it for
https://www.mag-inc.com/Media/Magnetics/Datasheets/0058740A2.pdf these are the cores, if anyone cares. Sintered metal powder, because ferrite just doesn't cut it
they'll be operating at about 5% saturation, which means their inductance won't change much over the full range of currents this thing is designed for
the problem I suppose is that high inductance (and in this context, 32μH is high) and high current capacity just don't mix well
especially when you need the inductance to be fairly flat with DC bias, because you need to operate anywhere from zero to a hundred amperes output
@Felthry I giggled at that. XD
@zetasyanthis Even if you could get the wire with such thin insulation and somehow manage to bend it into place, the interwinding capacitance would be too high for our needs anyway
@Felthry I mean, at that point just go full CERN and use solid copper straps. :P
@zetasyanthis we're using 2-gauge welding cable, which is conveniently flexible.
@Felthry How do they make that flexible? Just a billion strands?
@zetasyanthis The stranding is 1666/34, so yeah. Lots of strands.
@zetasyanthis in fact, they have this extra-flexible grade of welding cable up to 4/0 gauge, which has a stranding of 5225/34!
to clarify, the "for some reason" was entirely me being facetious. I completely understand the reasons