Abstract

Unique potential applications of electromagnetic railguns [R.S. Hawke, IEEE Trans. Nucl. NS-28 (2) (1981) 1542] have motivated a decade of continuous development throughout the world. This effort has led to routine acceleration of projectiles of from 1 g to about 1 kg, to velocities of nearly 4 km/s. Attempts to reach higher velocities have met with problems in the 6- to 8-km/s range [J.V. Parker, Proc. 4th Symp. on Electromagnetic Launch Tech., Austin, TX, 1988, to be published in IEEE Trans. Mag.]. The principal problem is "restrike", which causes shunting of the propulsive plasma armature by the formation of a second plasma short circuit in the breech region of the railgun. One means of impeding restrike is the use of a two-stage light-gas gun (2SLGG) as a projectile injector. A joint development project was initiated in early 1986 between the Sandia National Laboratories Albuquerque (SNLA) and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The project is based on the use of a 2SLGG to inject projectiles at about 7 km/s. The injection gas is hydrogen, which serves to inhibit formation of the secondary arc and to minimize barrel ablation and armature contamination. Results and status of this work are discussed.

*1 Work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract number W-7405-ENG-48.