In-bore diagnostic and modeling of an electrothermal plasma launcher
A diagnostic method has been developed to measure the high heat flux produced in the electrothermal plasma launcher SIRENS. The method involves attaching a thermocouple to the back surface of a target to obtain the temperature history of the back surface, which is a direct indication of the heat flux incident on the front surface. The measured temperature history is an input to a developed one dimensional (1-D), time dependent heat conduction code which uses the temperature history of the back surface to determine the incident heat flux on the front surface of the target. A one dimensional time dependent code, ODIN, was developed to model the plasma formation and flow in electrothermal launchers. ODIN models the plasma formation and flow into the source section and the plasma expansion into and through the barrel section. ODIN models the energy transport, particle transport, plasma resistivity, plasma viscosity, and equation-of-state. The source and barrel sections were broken into a specific number of cells and each cell was considered to be in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE), with the plasma modeled as a viscous fluid. The primary objective of the numerical simulation was to predict the time and axial variation of the plasma flow and to predict the magnitude of the drag forces acting on the plasma. SIRENS has been operated at atmospheric conditions using a fuse placed between the two electrodes in the source section to initiate the discharge. Three different types of fuses were tested, with the best results obtaining using a thin triangular shaped aluminum fuse. SIRENS has also be used to launch projectiles, with projectile masses ranging from 400 mg to 1500 mg. The maximum velocity obtained was 1.74 km/sec at an input energy of 2.5 kJ, using a 540 mg Lexan projectile with an efficiency of 33%.
- Research Organization:
- North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 7261095
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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