The secondary discharges and their influence on the work of rail accelerator

Author

Lebedev, A.D. ; Uryukov, B.A.

Author_Institution

Inst. for New Phys. & Appl. Problems, Acad. of Sci., Moscow, Russia

Volume

37

Issue

1

fYear

2001

fDate

1/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

431

Lastpage

434

Abstract

The known discrepancy of the computed and actual speeds for the accelerated bodies in rail accelerators has not been explained in detail until now. One of the reasons for this discrepancy can be the occurrence of the secondary plasma crosspieces as a result of the electrical breakdown of an interelectrode distance. In this paper the breakdown mechanism, similar to the “shunting” of an electrical arc in plasmatrons is offered. In order to calculate the process of the primary (armature) and the secondary crosspieces interaction, a physical scheme for determining the location of the secondary crosspiece in a barrel was proposed and grounded. The formula for calculation of Lorentz forces, acting on the crosspieces is obtained. An example calculation showing the influence of the secondary crosspiece on the projectile movement in a barrel is given. This result compares well with the experiment

Keywords

discharges (electric); electrodes; projectiles; railguns; Lorentz forces; armature; barrel; crosspieces interaction; electrical breakdown; interelectrode distance; projectile movement; rail accelerator; railguns; secondary crosspiece location; secondary discharges; secondary plasma crosspieces; Acceleration; Electric breakdown; Electrodes; Fault location; Helium; Pistons; Plasma accelerators; Projectiles; Railguns; Rails;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.911870

Filename

911870