Operating characteristics and modeling of the LLNL 100-kV electric gun

Author

Osher, John E. ; Barnes, G. ; Chau, Henry H. ; Lee, Ronald S. ; Lee, Chet ; Speer, R. ; Weingart, Richard C.

Author_Institution

Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab., CA, USA

Volume

17

Issue

3

fYear

1989

fDate

6/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

392

Lastpage

402

Abstract

In the electric gun, the explosion of an electrically heated metal foil and the accompanying magnetic forces drive a thin flyer plate up a short barrel. Flyer velocities of up to 18 km/s make the gun useful for hypervelocity impact studies. The authors review the technological evolution of the exploding-metal circuit elements that power the gun, describe the 100-kV electric gun designed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in some detail, and present the general principles of electric gun operation. They compare the experimental performance of the LLNL gun with a simple model and with predictions of a magnetohydrodynamics code

Keywords

electromagnetic launchers; projectiles; LLNL 100-kV electric gun; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; electric gun; electric gun operation; electrically heated metal foil; exploding-metal circuit elements; explosion; hypervelocity impact studies; magnetic forces; magnetohydrodynamics code; short barrel; thin flyer plate; Acceleration; Capacitors; Circuit testing; Dielectric materials; Explosions; Laminates; Pulse shaping methods; Resistance heating; Shock waves; Wires;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.32247

Filename

32247