Railgun using plasma initiation separated from the projectile

Journal Article · Wed Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 1993 · IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/27.256796· OSTI ID:142417

Katsuki, S; Akiyama, H; Yamada, T; Eguchi, N; Maeda, S ^[1]; Sato, K N ^[2]

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1. Kumamoto Univ. (Japan). Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
2. National Inst. for Fusion Science, Nagoya (Japan)

Preacceleration of a projectile is quite important to reduce the erosion of the bore surface in a railgun. Gas guns, electrothermal guns and other railguns have been used to preaccelerate the projectile. Here, the new method using Plasma Initiation Separated from the Projectile (PISP method) is proposed, and its effectiveness is confirmed experimentally. A thin copper is placed near the edge of the railgun, which explodes and forms a plasma that has a fast flow velocity due to the Lorentz force. This fast flowing plasma collides with the projectile which obtains an initial velocity mainly by the momentum transfer. Since the current increases while only the plasma is accelerated, the driving force of the projectile just after the collision of the plasma with the projectile is large. In other words, the PISP method works as an inductive energy storage circuit with an opening switch.

• OSTI ID: 142417
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. 21, Issue 6; Other Information: PBD: Dec 1993
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
FUEL FEEDING SYSTEMS
RAILGUN ACCELERATORS
DESIGN
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
PELLET INJECTION
THERMONUCLEAR REACTOR FUELING