Title :
The Design and Testing of a Large-Caliber Railgun
Author :
Crawford, Mark ; Subramanian, Ravi ; Watt, Trevor ; Surls, Dwayne ; Motes, Doyle ; Mallick, John ; Barnette, Darrel ; Satapathy, Sikhanda ; Campos, Joaquí
Author_Institution :
Inst. for Adv. Technol., Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Abstract :
A large-caliber railgun was developed to demonstrate the supersonic launch of 120 mm projectiles. A trade study that evaluated over 70 different railgun configurations and geometries resulted in the selection of a high-inductance-gradient, multi-turn configuration as the best overall choice. Subscale tests were performed on both the railgun and launch package configurations. A full-scale laboratory system was installed that included a dedicated high-current, large-caliber breech and gunline. A full-scale launcher was successfully tested to beyond the design conditions.
Keywords :
gradient methods; railguns; gunline; high-inductance-gradient; large-caliber breech; large-caliber railgun; multi-turn configuration; supersonic launch; Boring; Circuits; Geometry; Magnetic fields; Packaging; Projectiles; Railguns; Rails; Testing; Voltage;
Conference_Titel :
Electromagnetic Launch Technology, 2008 14th Symposium on
Conference_Location :
Victoria, BC
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-1832-9
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-1833-6
DOI :
10.1109/ELT.2008.84
