NRL Materials Testing Facility

Author

Meger, R.A. ; Huhman, Brett M. ; Neri, J.M. ; Brintlinger, T.H. ; Jones, H.N. ; Cairns, R.L. ; Douglass, S.R. ; Lockner, T.R. ; Sprague, J.A.

Author_Institution

Naval Res. Lab., Washington, DC, USA

Volume

41

Issue

5

fYear

2013

fDate

May-13

Firstpage

1538

Lastpage

1541

Abstract

The Naval Research Laboratory Materials Testing Facility performs basic research on high-power railguns. The laboratory houses a 6-m-long, 5-cm-bore railgun capable of launching 0.5-kg projectiles at up to 2.5 km/s. The railgun is powered by an 11-MJ capacitor bank comprising twenty-two 0.5-MJ modules. The crow-barred banks can drive up to 1.5 MA in the railgun. The railgun core consists of steel rails with copper backers and epoxy laminate insulators. Aluminum armatures with acrylic bore riders are used for the launch package. Launch data are recorded digitally and analyzed using in-house computer codes. The system design is presented along with typical data.

Keywords

capacitors; data recording; electronics packaging; epoxy insulation; materials testing; modules; projectiles; railguns; NRL; Naval Research Laboratory material testing facility; acrylic bore rider; aluminum armature; capacitor bank; copper backer; crow-barred bank; data recording; energy 0.5 MJ; energy 11 MJ; epoxy laminate insulator; high-power railgun; in-house computer code; launch packaging; mass 0.5 kg; module; projectile; size 5 cm; size 6 m; steel rails; Capacitors; Laboratories; Railguns; Rails; Resistors; Steel; X-ray imaging; Electric launcher; materials testing facility (MTF); pulsed power; railgun;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2013.2250313

Filename

6487413