Theoretical Problems Concerning Railgun Design.
Abstract
Various theoretical studies associated with design and implementation of a railgun are presented. Among other items the report contains a new equation of state for a strongly coupled laboratory plasma as well as a new analytic expression for electrical conductivity for a strongly coupled plasma. A fully relativistic analysis is made of the dynamics of a rail-gun based three assumptions: (1) Ohm's law is valid in the rest frame of the plasma; (2) total electron momentum is transferred to the projectile; and (3) motion of the projectile is constrained to one direction. With these assumptions, a relativistic equation for the velocity of the projectile is obtained whose solution monotonically increases to one of two values depending on field strengths. For B > E, the maximum velocity is cE/B whereas for E > B it is c where c is the speed of light, and E and B are applied electric and magnetic fields, respectively (in cgs).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1986
- Accession Number
- ADA174768
Entities
People
- Richard L. Liboff
Organizations
- Battelle Memorial Institute