The electromagnetic chemical propulsion concept

A new concept of propulsion to high velocities is presented. It combines the strong points of electrothermal chemical and electromagnetic methods. The projectile is accelerated by electromagnetic forces. Similar to other methods of electromagnetic propulsion, this overcomes the common limitations of conventional and electrothermal guns, caused by limited expansion speed of hot gases at acceptable temperatures. As with electrothermal chemical technology, most of the energy required for propulsion is produced during the launch in the launcher itself from chemical energy of propellant or fuel, and only a fraction of the projectile muzzle energy is provided by an external electric source. This determines the major potential advantage of the devised method over other methods of electromagnetic propulsion in which much larger amounts of energy (as a rule, exceeding the muzzle energy several times) need to be stored in external electric sources, making electromagnetic acceleration less appealing for potential users because these sources are too heavy, bulky, expensive and vulnerable. Other merits of the new propulsion method are lower pressure in the barrel, lower heating of the armature and nearly stress free acceleration of long launch packages by distributed forces. The acceleration is approximately constant during most of the launch time resulting in high piezometric efficiency combined with low jerk start and exit. Potential applications of the EMC propulsion are briefly discussed.<>