Ablation and erosion measurements in an electrothermal plasma gun

Summary form only given The Plasma Interactions with Propellants Experiment (PIPE) is a facility designed to study the response of materials and propellants exposed to a pulsed, high-heat flux plasma produced with an Electrothermal plasma gun. PIPE produces a high-density (10/sup 25/ to 10/sup 26/ m/sup -3/), low-temperature (1 to 3 eV) plasma for pulse lengths on the order of 100 /spl mu/s. PIPE is powered by a single 340-uF capacitor with a maximum charging voltage of 10-kV, for a maximum discharge energy of 17-kJ. This paper discusses the results of mass loss measurements made on metallic samples, as well as erosion of gun components (the plasma gun electrode, and the capillary sleeve.) Experiments were conducted at discharge energies between 0.07 and 8.62 kJ. These measurements were made during melt-layer erosion experiments, where metallic samples were exposed to the pulsed plasma to determine the effect of the liquid phase on erosion. In these experiments, the mass loss of the samples was measured to determine the net sample erosion. Results from aluminum (2042 Al), copper (OFHC Cu), and stainless steel (316 SS) samples are discussed.