Design And Test Results of a Thermally Fused Explosive Switch
Abstract
The need to reduce solid armature and launch package start-up acceleration for an inductively driven railgun necessitates an increase in the storage inductor to gun commutation time. For this purpose, a "fused," high current, explosively actuated opening switch has been designed and tested at the Electric Armaments Division, ARDEC, Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey. The switch has been operated in the 600 kA to 1300 kA current range and has repeatedly demonstrated opening times from 720 micro s at 600 kA to 840 micro s at 1000 kA. Armature jerk for an 615 gram solid armature has been reduced from 350 Megagees (MG)/sec to 38 MG/sec at the 600 kA operating point. The design premise for the thermal fusing section, operating experience and test results are presented.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA639415
Entities
People
- D. Hildenbrand
- David Chang
- J. Rapka
- Kelsey Luu
- T. Coradeschi
Organizations
- United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center