Design and performance of Sandia´s contactless coilgun for 50 mm projectiles

Author

Kaye, Ronald J. ; Cnare, Eugene C. ; Cowan, M. ; Duggin, Billy W. ; Lipinski, Ronald J. ; Marder, Barry M. ; Douglas, Gary M. ; Shimp, Kenneth J.

Author_Institution

Sandia Nat. Lab., Albuquerque, NM, USA

Volume

29

Issue

1

fYear

1993

fDate

1/1/1993 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

680

Lastpage

685

Abstract

A multistage, contactless coilgun is being designed to demonstrate the applicability of this technology to accelerate nominal 50-mm-diameter projectiles to velocities of 3 km/s. Forty stages of this design (Phase 1 coilgun) will provide a testbed for coil designs and system components while accelerating 200 to 400 g projectiles to 1 km/s. The Phase 1 gun was successfully qualified by operating 40 stages at half energy (10-kJ stored/stage) accelerating 340 g, room-temperature, aluminum-armature projectiles to 406 m/s. The design and performance of the Phase 1 coilgun, coil development, projectile design, capacitor banks, firing system, and integration are discussed

Keywords

electromagnetic launchers; projectiles; 50 mm; Phase 1 coilgun; Sandia contactless coilgun; capacitor; design; firing system; multistage contactless coilgun; performance; projectiles; Acceleration; Capacitors; Coilguns; Coils; Contacts; Laboratories; Life estimation; Magnetic fields; Payloads; Projectiles;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.195657

Filename

195657