Design and testing of a 0. 60 caliber, augmented railgun
- Texas Univ., Austin, TX (United States). Center for Electromechanics
The Center for Electromechanics at The University of Texas at Austin (CEM-UT) is currently in the manufacturing phase of a 29-month program to build and test a laboratory based small caliber electromagnetic (EM) launcher and compulsator power supply. The goal of the EM launcher is to deliver a three shot projectile salvo at 10 Hz. The muzzle energy of each 32-g projectile is 64 kJ, which yields an exit velocity of 2,000 m/s. A full-scale, 0.60 caliber, 1.6 m prototype railgun has been built and is currently being tested at CEM-UT. This augmented railgun incorporates a low mass, high inductance gradient (1.25 {mu}H/m) design. High strength stainless-steel laminations support the primary and augmenting rail package in a compact and inherently stiff design. Rail erosion is minimized by the use of molybdenum for the primary rails. Copper is used for the end turns and augmenting conductors to ensure reliable bolted connections and to reduce the overall gun resistance. The laminations are insulated using epoxy adhesive and held in compression using an overwrapped composite preload tube. The entire gun weighs less than 100 kg and will be mounted to a recoil mechanism when fired from the compulsator power supply. This paper presents the design for the 0.60 caliber augmented, laminated, solid-armature railgun. Included is the discussion of the magnetic pressure distribution and heating on the molybdenum and copper conductors, and gun stiffness as predicted by finite-element analysis. The inductance gradient is calculated and correlated to experimental results. The materials selection, fabrication details, and insulation methods are also discussed. Finally, gun performance is presented through experimental data collected from testing solid armature projectiles.
- OSTI ID:
- 5689163
- 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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