Projectile development for railguns using hypervelocity preacceleration
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
- EG and G Rocky Flats, Inc., Golden, CO (United States)
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Ktech Corp., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
The STARFIRE Project is a joint Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) effort to achieve hypervelocity projectile launches up to 15 km/s. The apparatus used to achieve this goal is a three stage acceleration system made up of a two-stage light-gas gun (2SLGG) is used as a preaccelerator capable of injecting 2 gram projectiles at velocities of 6 km/s or more. Projectiles used in this environment are subject to many conditions. Some of these which effect projectile design include: acceleration loading, structural response, barrel condition and alignment. Development of a projectile to satisfy the programmatic requirements is underway. This report covers the evolution of design and fabrication for railgun projectiles from previous experience at LLNL to the replenished plasma armature and projectile now used on STARFIRE. Projectile design, development and fabrication methods which use off-the-shelf materials and standard techniques to meet the operational criteria of the experimental program are discussed in this paper. Initial work involving the design and fabrication of skirted projectiles, which are expected to further reduce interaction phenomena between the plasma armature and railgun barrel, is also described.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 10140534
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-ID-109283; ON: DE92012410
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1 Feb 1991
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Projectile development for railguns using hypervelocity preacceleration
Projectile development for railguns using hypervelocity preacceleration