Hypervelocity macroparticle accelerator experiments at CEM-UT
- Texas Univ., Austin, TX (United States). Center for Electromechanics
This paper reports on several railgun experiments designed to accelerate projectile masses of 2 to 5 g to velocities greater than 6 km/s that were performed at the Center for Electromechanics at The University of Texas at Austin (CEM-UT). Two parallel rail-type accelerators with 12.7 mm square bores were used for the experiments. One gun is 2-m long, has molybdenum rails, alumina ceramic insulators, and the other gun is 1-m long, has molybdenum rails, and granite insulators. The greatest velocity achieved to date during the experiments was 5.1 kn/s. During the test program, the following ideas to enhance launcher performance were tested: stiff-gun structures to reduce plasma leakage and rail movement; refractory bore materials to reduce ablation and frictional losses; and prefilling the gun bore with gases which will eliminate precursor arcs. After three experiments utilizing the 2 m long launcher, with peak current ranging from 660 to 780 kA (bore pressures ranging from 62.6 to 87.5 ksi), a gun barrel comprised of 96% pure alumina ceramic insulators and 99.9% pure molybdenum rails (which is hydraulically contained and preloaded) has survived with minimal damage and no degradation of seals.
- OSTI ID:
- 5654970
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9004136-; CODEN: IEMGA
- Journal Information:
- IEEE Transactions on Magnetics (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States), Vol. 27:1; Conference: 5. IEEE symposium on electromagnetic launcher technology, Destin, FL (United States), 1-5 Apr 1990; ISSN 0018-9464
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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