Electrical and Thermal Effects of Rail Cladding in a Full-Scale Launcher
Abstract
A previous paper reported the computational simulation of a resistive rail cladding in a 40 mm bore railgun. In that study, it was found that a 1 mm thick resistive rail cladding (10 mW.cm or 50 mW.cm) on a copper rail (2 mW.cm) resulted in an additional electrical loss equal to about 5% of the muzzle energy, corresponding to a reduction in the overall launch efficiency of less than 1%. This report extends the previous cladding study to a 90 mm bore, near full-scale railgun. The base rail material resistivity has been increased to 4.5 W-cm, typical of the low density alloys that may be needed in a practical launcher. It is found that a 1 mm resistive cladding in the near full-scale launcher has only one half the impact on efficiency calculated previously for a 40 mm bore. For example, a 100 mW.cm cladding results in an additional electrical loss equal to 2.4% of the muzzle kinetic energy, resulting in reduction in overall launcher efficiency of less than 1/2%.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA349032
Entities
People
- J. A. Parker
- S. Levinson
Organizations
- University of Texas at Austin