Armature options for hypervelocity railguns

Models have been developed to study the effects of various performance-degrading mechanisms on the efficiency of railgun armatures. The models have been used to compare three armature options-plasma, hybrid, and transitioning-for the case of a 2.5-gm projectile accelerated to velocities of up to 15 km/s. Effects considered include armature parasitic mass, electrical resistance, viscous drag between the armature and bore, ablation drag due to ohmic and viscous dissipation, and for the hybrid armature, gap growth due to ablation of the solid conductor