The Programmed Capacitor Storage Discharge and Other Factors Influencing on Launch Velocity and on Performance of an Electrodischarge Accelerator

Investigation of influence of some factors on launch velocity and efficiency of projectiles acceleration by means of the electrothermal and other accelerators supplying by electric energy is performed for a long time and gave many experimental results. Besides the next parameters of working gas as: pressure, temperature, molecular mass, degree of its contamination etc., the duration of the electric energy input in working gas (duration of the current pulse) influences on velocity and efficiency too. The changing of duration of the electric energy input by programming of capacitor storage discharge can be performed. The experiments, which were carried out, showed the next main results. The projectile velocity increases by 7-10% at the programmed discharge mode comparatively to the synchronous mode, although the energy inserted in the arc is equal for both modes. The efficiency of energy conversion from internal energy of working gas to the kinetic energy of the projectile at velocity of 2100 m/s increases from 15 to 17 %. Thus, to achieve equal projectile velocity the pulsed pressure at the programmed mode would be lower than the same parameter at the synchronous mode. That is very important, for example, at launching of projectiles containing penetrators of big elongation.