Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Final design of an air core, compulsator driven, 0. 60 caliber railgun system

Conference · · IEEE Transactions on Magnetics (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States)
OSTI ID:5868834
; ; ; ; ; ;  [1]
  1. 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 laboratory based small caliber electromagnetic (EM) launcher and compulsator power supply. The objective of the 29-month program is to develop a compact, lightweight test bed capable of accelerating 32-g masses to 2 km/s at a rate of 10 Hz. Both the power supply and launcher feature significant component design advances which will allow the system to operate at considerably higher energy and power densities than previously demonstrated. The 750-kg compulsator will generate 2.2 kV and the Silicon- controlled rectifier (SCR) switch will commutate 386-kA pulses into the 1.6-m long, 0.60 caliber augmented solid armature railgun. This paper describes the final design and predicted operating characteristics of the compulsator system. Overall system performance parameters are reported, including results from the optimization code used to aid in the design of the compulsator system. A system design overview is presented with emphasis on new materials and state-of-the-art machine components to be used for the first time in a compulsator.

OSTI ID:
5868834
Report Number(s):
CONF-9004136--
Journal Information:
IEEE Transactions on Magnetics (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States), Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Magnetics (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States) Vol. 27:1; ISSN IEMGA; ISSN 0018-9464
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English