Abstract
An experiment has been constructed to simulate a plasma-armature-driven railgun. The device simulates a railgun at current levels up to 500 kA and velocities up to 10 km/s for the purposes of evaluating railgun plasma parameters and developing railgun-plasma diagnostic techniques. The device has been tested at currents up to 120 kA and has been shown to be capable of providing independent control of the total arc current and the average arc velocity by varying the PFN (pulse-forming-network) voltages on either end of the device. The device has been used to investigate the use of interferometric techniques to determine plasma density in railguns. Preliminary data indicate that the plasma density for railgun arcs with a total current of 100 kA is on the order of 4 × 1018 cm-3.
Original language | English |
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Pages | 126-128 |
Number of pages | 3 |
State | Published - 1987 |
Event | Sixth IEEE Pulsed Power Conference - Digest of Technical Papers - Arlington, VA, USA Duration: Jun 29 1987 → Jul 1 1987 |
Conference
Conference | Sixth IEEE Pulsed Power Conference - Digest of Technical Papers |
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City | Arlington, VA, USA |
Period | 06/29/87 → 07/1/87 |