Investigation of dynamics and structure of a plasma armature in the railgun by means of Rogowski induction coils

A range of operating conditions was experimentally pursued for the railgun in which the space occupied by the discharge plasma behaves as a quasi-stationary object, so that the notion "plasma armature" appears to be correct. Taking this into account, the measurements of velocity, acceleration, and space structure of plasma armatures have been made with the help of induction detectors (Rogowski coils) of different configurations. The experiment allows determination of the velocity, acceleration and longitudinal space structure of a plasma armature by the correlation analysis technique with accuracy limited only by the fulfilment of quasi-stationary conditions. The simplest tomography variant being realized in the experiment provided the lateral structure of the plasma armature. Four points for current density have been investigated along the channel diameter scale.<>