Design and testing of large-bore, ultra-stiff railguns

Price, J.H.; Fahrenthold, Eric P.; Fulcher, Clay; Peterson, D.R.; Weldon, W.F.; Zowarka, R.C.

doi:10.1109/20.22582

Cited by 22 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Prestressing is used to bias the stress state of insulator and structural support materials and provide geometric stability between insulators and rails to prevent plasma leakage [7]. Barrel prestressing has not been proven to significantly enhance plasma armature performance or significantly improve barrel stiffness.…”

Section: Bore Prestressingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A system overview of the technology development issues for fieldable EML barrels

Newman

Barber

1993

IEEE Trans. Magn.

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Electromagnetic launcher (EML) technology is at a transition stage between laboratory technology achieve user requirements. barrel development must focus on developing solutions to development and advanced engineering development.EML's are being considered for missions such as mobile anti-armor platforms. In order to successfully transition the technology to this mission the user requirements must be clearly identified and key design issues must be This paper lays the groundwork for this system assessment by identifying the critical user requirements and discussing several key design issues resulting from these requirements. identified from a system viewpoint and not from a single view technology development standpoint.

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Section: Bore Prestressingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A system overview of the technology development issues for fieldable EML barrels

Newman

Barber

1993

IEEE Trans. Magn.

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“…However, few studies have investigated the relationship between rails and insulators. The concept of pre-stressing has been employed to maintain the geometric configuration of assembled railgun components during launch [24]. By applying pre-stress, configuration of assembled railgun components during launch [24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Influencing the Expansion of Arch-Shaped Electromagnetic Railguns with Pre-Stressed Composite Barrels

et al. 2023

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Rail expansion significantly impacts the launch precision of a railgun system. Higher precision can be achieved when the extent of expansion is low. This paper investigates three main factors that influence the extent of rail expansion using the finite element method, including pre-stress, electromagnetic load, and stiffness of the insulators. The mean squared error between experiment results and simulating results is less than 0.06, validating the finite element model. The simulated results reveal that the extent of rail expansion increases with a decrease in pre-stress and an increase in electromagnetic pressure and the stiffness of the insulator is the most significant influencing factor, as the use of a stiff insulator not only results in a small extent of rail expansion but also delays the separation between the rails and insulators. The mechanism of how pre-stress influences the railgun system has been proposed. It has been expressed that the pre-stress maintains the integrity of the railgun system by hindering the process of a decrease in the contact surface area between rails and insulators during launch. The study provides a platform to improve the design of the railgun system.

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“…Xu [14,15] found that G10 insulator was prone to pits under mechanical shock, and the mechanical damage was the most serious at the current peak and initial decline stage. Scholars from the University of Texas at Austin [16,17] found that the insulator in the muzzle area delaminated after several tests, which became the starting point of failure and expanded in subsequent launches. Other scholars believed that the barrel dynamics, including the structural natural oscillation [18] as well as the repeated extrusion, friction [19] and deformation [20] of the rail, led to the cracking and delamination of G10 insulator.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delamination failure analysis of G10 insulator in electromagnetic rail launcher

Liu

Tan

et al. 2023

High Voltage

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The electromagnetic (EM) rail launcher G10 insulator is prone to delamination damage during launch, which affects the service life of the insulator. Through the secondary development of ABAQUS® commercial finite‐element software, an EM‐structure coupling launch dynamics model considering projectile‐barrel coupling is established. The simulation indicates that the transverse swing of the projectile changes in a sine‐like law, and the time of the upper half wave corresponds to the pulse width of the impact force pulse waveform. The stress concentration occurs on the inner surface of the insulator where the contact‐impact occurs, resulting in impact damage. The midline of the insulator inner surface bears a large compressive strain under the action of pre‐tightening force, and the insulator is compressed oscillatingly under the influence of the time‐varying load of the rail during launch. Under the condition of repeated launch, the launch package repeatedly impacts the insulator, and the alternating load of the rail is cyclically loaded on the insulator with impact damage, which will cause the compression fatigue of the insulator and the expansion of impact damage crack. They are the main reasons for the delamination failure of insulator, and the experimental analysis is carried out. This study provides a method to study the delamination failure mechanism of the insulator, and provides guidance for improving the life of the insulator.

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Design and testing of large-bore, ultra-stiff railguns

Cited by 22 publications

References 6 publications

A system overview of the technology development issues for fieldable EML barrels

A system overview of the technology development issues for fieldable EML barrels

Factors Influencing the Expansion of Arch-Shaped Electromagnetic Railguns with Pre-Stressed Composite Barrels

Delamination failure analysis of G10 insulator in electromagnetic rail launcher

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