Electromagnetic field measurements near a railgun

Author

Coburn, W.O. ; Le, Calvin ; DeTroye, D.J. ; Blair, G.E. ; Williams, W.

Author_Institution

US Army Res. Lab., Adelphi, MD, USA

Volume

31

Issue

1

fYear

1995

Firstpage

698

Lastpage

703

Abstract

Electromagnetic (EM) field measurements were conducted near a 15 mm square-bore railgun accelerating a metal armature. Under shorted rail conditions, the EM environment is quasi-static and directly related to the rail current distribution. Under operational conditions the EM environment is more complex and can include nonlinear effects such as muzzle arcing. Electric and magnetic field measurements were designed to characterize the transient EM environment external to a capacitor-based railgun. Selected data are presented to demonstrate the time history and the spatial variation of the measured EM environment. Analytical results, assuming a quasi-static armature acceleration, are included for comparison. Good agreement in amplitude, waveform, and spatial variation is obtained with a filament current model.<>

Keywords

arcs (electric); current distribution; electric field measurement; electromagnetic fields; magnetic field measurement; power capacitors; pulsed power technology; railguns; 15 mm; amplitude; electric field measurements; electromagnetic field measurements; magnetic field measurements; metal armature; muzzle arcing; nonlinear effects; power capacitor; quasi-static environment; shorted rail conditions; spatial variation; square-bore railgun; time history; transient EM environment; waveform; Acceleration; Current distribution; Electromagnetic fields; Electromagnetic measurements; History; Magnetic analysis; Magnetic field measurement; Railguns; Rails; Time measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.364608

Filename

364608