Railgun with integrated electrothermal preacceleration

In order to transfer a maximum amount of energy into kinetic energy of the mass to be accelerated and to keep erosion processes small, railguns are operated with preacceleration. Some aspects of electrothermal preacceleration are discussed, and a railgun system is presented which uses a sinusoidal current pulse. Electrothermal preacceleration is done by a close-connected separate unit. In the first part of the acceleration process the mass is driven electrothermally. With increasing current an additional electromagnetic force acts on the mass. First experiments with a railgun using an integrated electrothermal preacceleration unit have demonstrated successful operation, even if the railgun is supplied by a sinusoidal current pulse