Vapor shielding and erosion of surfaces exposed to a high heat load in an electrothermal accelerator

Author

Bourham, Mohamed A. ; Hankins, Orlando E. ; Auciello, O. ; Stock, Joseph M. ; Wehring, Bernard W. ; Mohanti, Roma B. ; Gilligan, John G.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Nucl. Eng., North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC, USA

Volume

17

Issue

3

fYear

1989

fDate

6/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

386

Lastpage

391

Abstract

The experimental and theoretical verification of the vapour shield concept in an electrothermal accelerator is reported. Measurements of the ablation mass loss of the insulator material (Lexan) demonstrate that the energy transmission factor through the vapor shield is of the order of 10%. If enough vapor is produced under high heat flux, the vapor shield mechanism will help limit the surface erosion in electromechanical devices. The erosion of the barrel material (aluminum) has a strong axial dependence, and the erosion depth increases with input energy

Keywords

thermal insulating materials; wear; Al; ablation mass loss; axial dependence; barrel material; electromechanical devices; electrothermal accelerator; energy transmission factor; erosion; erosion depth; heat flux; high heat load; input energy; insulator material; surface erosion; surfaces; vapour shield concept; Acceleration; Electrothermal effects; Electrothermal launching; Plasma density; Plasma devices; Plasma materials processing; Plasma simulation; Plasma sources; Plasma temperature; Plasma transport processes;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.32246

Filename

32246