Experimental investigation of a hydrogen plasma railgun

The plasma velocity and temperature and composition distributions in a hydrogen plasma railgun were measured. Typical velocities near the muzzle were ~95 km/s at an initial capacitor bank stored energy of 4.1 kJ. Temperatures ranged from a peak of ~24000 K in the current-carrying plasma to ~8500 K in the tail. The current-carrying plasma was composed of roughly equal parts of hydrogen and copper on a mass basis, while the tail was primarily copper. Computer modeling of armature B-dot probe signals has yielded a simple interpretation of the signal