Metal oxidiser electrothermal gun research

The Sowerby Research Centre (SRC) has been investigating the performance of electrothermal guns with funding from Royal Ordnance Nottingham. Initial research concentrated on a `pure´ electrothermal gun. This uses a plasma to ablate materials such as polythene to generate low molecular mass gasses which accelerate a projectile down the barrel. Although achieving projectile velocities of 2 km/s this method has been superseded due to its large electrical energy requirement. The oxidisation of aluminium by the reaction with water releases very large amounts of energy and liberates hydrogen with which to accelerate the projectile. Effort at the SRC has concentrated on using electrical energy to control this reaction. Work has demonstrated 125 kJ of electrical energy can control the release of 1.5 MJ of chemical energy. This paper reviews the metal oxidiser research undertaken and presents some of the results