The Atomic-Hydrogen Gun

Abstract

Calculations are presented which indicate that light-gas guns powered by electrical discharges may be expected to achieve substantially higher projectile velocities than may be obtained by any present laboratory gun. The thermodynamic properties of compressed, high-temperature hydrogen are calculated and presented, and it is found that for isentropic expansions in a region representative of gun operation, the gas closely follows an equation of state, even though considerable dissociation occurs. For the same gun parameter and gas temperature, hydrogen was found to give much higher muzzle velocities than helium. Using values commensurate with the current state of the art, it was estimated that such a gun could deliver about 10 km/sec and would have a large potential for future improvement.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 05, 1961
Accession Number
AD0260770

Entities

People

  • R. L. Bjork

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Equations
  • Explosive Charges
  • Explosives
  • Gas Guns
  • Guns
  • High Pressure
  • High Temperature
  • Ideal Gas Law
  • Launch Tubes
  • Light Gas Guns
  • Mach Number
  • Materials
  • Mechanical Properties
  • Molecular Weight
  • Muzzle Velocity
  • Thermodynamic Properties

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion science or combustion engineering.
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • ballistics.