Spectroscopic measurements of railgun plasma armatures in an augmented railgun using a permanent magnet

Author

Katsuki, S. ; Sueda, T. ; Koga, Y. ; Akiyama, H. ; Sato, K.N.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Kumamoto Univ., Japan

Volume

33

Issue

1

fYear

1997

fDate

1/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

98

Lastpage

103

Abstract

Measurements of electron density using Stark broadening of the H _α line are performed to investigate the behavior of plasma armatures in rail guns with and without an augmenting magnetic field. A permanent magnet with a magnetic flux density of 1.25 T was used to augment the magnetic field of one railgun. Driving currents of 20 and 25 kA are supplied to the railguns with and without the augmenting magnetic field, respectively, in order to maintain the same peak Lorentz force on the projectile. Also a gradual temporal increase in electron density and length of the plasma armature is observed in the augmented railgun

Keywords

permanent magnets; plasma devices; plasma diagnostics; railguns; 1.25 T; 20 kA; 25 kA; H_α line; Lorentz force; Stark broadening; augmenting magnetic field; electron density; permanent magnet; railgun plasma armature; spectroscopic measurements; Density measurement; Electrons; Magnetic field measurement; Magnetic fields; Performance evaluation; Plasma density; Plasma measurements; Railguns; Rails; Spectroscopy;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.559911

Filename

559911