Comparative study of component erosion for electromagnetic and electrothermal launchers

Author

Bourham, M.A. ; Hankins, O.E. ; Gilligan, J.G. ; Hurley, J.D. ; Earnhart, J.R.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Nucl. Eng., North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC, USA

Volume

29

Issue

1

fYear

1993

fDate

1/1/1993 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1107

Lastpage

1112

Abstract

The electrothermal launcher SIRENS has been used to study the erosion of critical components (rails and insulators) of plasma-driven launchers. SIRENS can produce high-density (>10²⁵/m³) low-temperature (1-3 eV) plasma, formed by the ablation of the insulator (Lexan), with currents up to 100 kA. The incident heat flux varies between 2 and 90 GW/m² over 100 μs duration, for input energies of 1-10 kJ. Erosion studies have been performed on several insulators, pure and coated metals, alloys, and several graphite grades. The fraction of the total incident energy transmitted to the eroded surface varies from 12 to 30% for the materials tested and decreases to 5-7% as the incident energy fluence increases. Such reduction in erosion for a given incident fluence is due to the vapor shield effect. The scaling law for the energy transmission factor through the vapor shield layer was obtained for the exposed materials

Keywords

electromagnetic launchers; insulators; plasma guns; wear; 1 to 10 kJ; 100 kA; 100 mus; EM launchers; Lexan; SIRENS; alloys; coated metals; component erosion; electrothermal launchers; energy transmission factor; graphite; high density plasma; insulators; low temperature plasma; plasma-driven launchers; rails; vapor shield effect; Electrical resistance measurement; Electromagnetic launching; Electrothermal launching; Inorganic materials; Insulation; Materials testing; Plasma materials processing; Plasma measurements; Plasma sources; Plasma temperature;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.195736

Filename

195736