Using the hexagonal segmented railgun in multishot mode with 3 projectiles

The SR3-60 is a 2 meter long segmented railgun with three individual pairs of rails (segments). It uses a hexagonal cross-section of the projectile and allows the installation of the rails of the three segments overlapping or sequantial. The independence of the individual segments allows to load up to three projectiles into the barrel and to fire them in rapid succession. This mode of operation can increase the firing rate, as compared to a simple railgun, Most importantly, it reduces the thermal load for the individual segments. During the preparation for the multishot experiments different parameters describing the performance of the acceleration were measured and investigated. These pre-tests allowed the definition of the parameters for the safe operation of the multishot experiments. Initial multishot experiments were performed using a 10 ms and 5 ms time delay between the launch of the individual projectiles. The performance and conditions of these experiments are analyzed. This analysis made use of two high-speed cameras, for example to determine the velocity of the projectiles. This presentation will outline the above mentioned analysis and give an outlook on planned future experiments.