Design and testing of an ultra distributed energy store system (UDESS)

Author

Scholz, Timothy J. ; Juston, John M. ; Bauer, David P.

Author_Institution

IAP Res. Inc., Dayton, OH, USA

Volume

33

Issue

1

fYear

1997

fDate

1/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

604

Lastpage

608

Abstract

A Distributed Energy Store (DES) powered railgun has been built to evaluate DES projectile acceleration performance and launcher efficiency. We describe the design, fabrication, and initial test results of the launcher, lightweight launch package, and the trigger control system. The launcher has a 19 mm square bore and consisted of three stages; a light gas injector, a 1 m long breech fed EM launcher, and 6.25 m of DES launcher. The launcher is designed to be sealed for vacuum operation and incorporates the current feeds for the 32 stage power supplies. The trigger control system uses signals from B-dot probes to determine when to fire the individual stage power supplies. The system has been tested using both plasma and metallic armatures. For this paper, the results and discussion are limited to plasma armature tests

Keywords

capacitor storage; control systems; inductive energy storage; power supplies to apparatus; railguns; 1 m; 19 mm; 32 stage power supplies; 6.25 m; B-dot probes; DES launcher; breech fed EM launcher; distributed energy store powered railgun; fabrication; launcher efficiency; light gas injector; lightweight launch package; metallic armatures; plasma armatures; projectile acceleration performance; trigger control system; ultra distributed energy store system; vacuum operation; Acceleration; Control systems; Fabrication; Lighting control; Packaging; Plasma applications; Power supplies; Projectiles; Railguns; System testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.560082

Filename

560082