TY - GEN
T1 - A 40-stage DES plasma ARC railgun
AU - Karhi, R.
AU - Wetz, D.
AU - Mankowski, J.
AU - Giesselmann, M.
AU - El-Dana, I.
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - The design and experimental results of a 40-stage distributed energy store (DES) plasma arc railgun are presented. The railgun drives a free running hypervelocity plasma arc, one that is not pushing a payload, to velocities in excess of 10 km/s. These high velocities are of interest as they are required to successfully launch payloads into low earth orbit (LEO). The ability to launch payloads into LEO using a hypervelocity electromagnetic launcher has many financial benefits over the more conventional chemical combustion launchers. In collaboration on an Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) funded Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) project, the Center for Pulsed Power and Power Electronics (P3E) at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. Texas has been responsible for developing and investigating a functional scale model of a multi-stage DES railgun to determine its effectiveness to suppress restrike phenomenon and increase plasma armature railgun performance. The distributed energy scheme is theorized to suppress restrike arc formation because the back emf voltage is localized to active stage regions. B-dot sensors positioned along the length of the launcher provide data to measure the plasma arc velocity and detect restrike, arc splitting, or additional secondary arc formation phenomena.
AB - The design and experimental results of a 40-stage distributed energy store (DES) plasma arc railgun are presented. The railgun drives a free running hypervelocity plasma arc, one that is not pushing a payload, to velocities in excess of 10 km/s. These high velocities are of interest as they are required to successfully launch payloads into low earth orbit (LEO). The ability to launch payloads into LEO using a hypervelocity electromagnetic launcher has many financial benefits over the more conventional chemical combustion launchers. In collaboration on an Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) funded Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) project, the Center for Pulsed Power and Power Electronics (P3E) at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. Texas has been responsible for developing and investigating a functional scale model of a multi-stage DES railgun to determine its effectiveness to suppress restrike phenomenon and increase plasma armature railgun performance. The distributed energy scheme is theorized to suppress restrike arc formation because the back emf voltage is localized to active stage regions. B-dot sensors positioned along the length of the launcher provide data to measure the plasma arc velocity and detect restrike, arc splitting, or additional secondary arc formation phenomena.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84861379078&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/PPC.2011.6191671
DO - 10.1109/PPC.2011.6191671
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84861379078
SN - 9781457706295
T3 - Digest of Technical Papers-IEEE International Pulsed Power Conference
SP - 1495
EP - 1502
BT - IEEE Conference Record - PPC 2011, Pulsed Power Conference 2011
Y2 - 19 June 2011 through 23 June 2011
ER -