Simple models for electric gun operating characteristics

Conference · Thu Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:6215817

Lee, R. S.

The electric gun, sometimes called a foil gun, uses the energy initially stored in a capacitor to electrically heat a thin conducting bridge in a transmission line connected to the capacitor. The deposited energy, typically several times the cohesive energy of the bridge material, is deposited in a time much less than the thermal time constant of the bridge, causing the bridge to explode violently. A thin dielectric layer (flyer plate) placed on top of the bridge can be accelerated to hypervelocity by the expansion of the bridge material and accompanying magnetic forces. The detailed physics of the heating and explosion process is very complicated. Elaborate computer codes are required for realistic models of the acceleration of the flyer plate, but a useful description of the gun performance can be obtained from the circuit characteristics and the properties of the bridge and flyer plate by simple empirical models. This paper will discuss simple models which have been successfully used to model electric gun performance. 6 refs., 5 figs., 1 tab.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 6215817
• Report Number(s): UCRL-98803; CONF-890661-1; ON: DE89005348
• Resource Relation: Conference: 3. international symposium on behavior of media under high dynamic pressures, La Grande Motte, France, 5 Jun 1989; Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
42 ENGINEERING
ELECTRON GUNS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTRIC BRIDGES
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
ENERGY TRANSFER
EQUATIONS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
EXPLOSIONS
FOILS
DATA
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
INFORMATION
NUMERICAL DATA
SIMULATION
430301* - Particle Accelerators- Ion Sources
420800 - Engineering- Electronic Circuits & Devices- (-1989)