Experimental Investigation of a Three-Stage Railgun Incorporating Puff-Switching,

Abstract

A sequence of four firings of a 2.4 m long, 10 mm square bore railgun is described and analysed. The railgun comprised an injection stage, a breech power source and second power source which was connected by a puff switch. The report deals with the puff-switching results, distribution of current in the plasma, the proportion of projectile kinetic energy due to plasma expansion forces as compared to electromagnetic forces, the correlation of rail damage with current and plasma length, and velocity limitation according to the ablation model. Keywords: Railgun accelerators; Electromagnetic launchers; Distributed energy railgun; Plasma switching; Australia.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1987
Accession Number
ADA191044

Entities

People

  • D. F. Stainsby
  • D. R. Sadedin

Organizations

  • Defence Science and Technology Group

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Ablation
  • Cameras
  • Current Density
  • Electrons
  • Energy
  • Explosives
  • Films
  • High Pressure
  • Kinetic Energy
  • Leading Edges
  • Lorentz Force
  • Materials
  • Peak Values
  • Photographs
  • Photography
  • Power Supplies
  • Projectiles

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion Dynamics and Shock Wave Physics.
  • Plasma Physics.
  • Theoretical Analysis.