Railguns for equation-of-state research
It appears that a railgun can be used to accelerate an impactor plate to velocities of 10 to 40 km/s, which could generate shock pressures of 1 to 10 TPa. As a first step to determining the potential and limits of railgun accelerators for shock-wave equation-of-state research, a joint team of scientists and engineers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have initiated railgun research. We have utilized a combined capacitor bank and magnetic flux compression generator to power railguns and have demonstrated the feasibility of accelerating projectiles to approx. 10 km/s. This paper reports the status of experimental research directed toward launching EOS impactors and achieving higher velocities.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA); Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 6236980
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-85298; CONF-810684-33; ON: DE81024258
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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