Development of a naval railgun

McNab, I.R.; Stefani, F.; Crawford, M.; Erengil, Mehmet; Persad, C.; Satapathy, S.; Vanicek, H.; Watt, T.; Dampier, Craig Richard

doi:10.1109/tmag.2004.839285

Cited by 87 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…McNab et al [34] outline the technical challenges that need to be resolved to scale up to launch large projectiles (on the order of 20 kg) to greater than 2 km/s. This Navy application has the enormous advantage that the launcher and power source will be integrated into a large launch platform, so capacitors and pulsed alternators can be considered for energy storage and power conditioning (Fig.…”

Section: Railgunsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electromagnetic launch science and technology in the United States enters a new era

Fair

2005

IEEE Trans. Magn.

105

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Electromagnetic launch science and technology in the United States is on the threshold of a major new advance in its development. Significant developments in hypervelocity electromagnetic launch and in hypervelocity high-G guidance and control components have provided the impetus for exploring advanced electromagnetic weapon systems capable of providing revolutionary new capabilities. These systems include the electromagnetic launch of aircraft from Navy aircraft carriers, hypervelocity electromagnetic guns on ships to provide protection and to launch guided projectiles to extraordinary ranges, and lightweight ground combat vehicles propelled by hybrid electric power protected by electromagnetic armor and capable of defeating advanced armor targets with lightweight hypervelocity penetrators from electromagnetic railguns. This presentation will summarize many of the technical advances leading to the decision to implement these new engineering efforts.

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Section: Railgunsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electromagnetic launch science and technology in the United States enters a new era

Fair

2005

IEEE Trans. Magn.

105

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“…The U.S. Navy is considering the development of an electromagnetic launcher (EML) for surface-fire support and other missions [1], and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has initiated a program to develop and test materials to achieve these fire rates and lifetimes [2]. NRL has assembled a facility to develop and test materials for the study of barrel lifetime in electromagnetic launchers (EML) for surface-fire support and other missions [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative analysis of high velocity projectile images using MATLAB

Huhman

Choi

2011

2011 IEEE Pulsed Power Conference

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The Materials Testing Facility (MTF) at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) routinely captures orthogonal x-ray images of launch packages (LP) as they travel through the flight tube after a launch. Located about a meter from the target plates, the x ray images provide a useful diagnostic for determining the performance of the materials used during the test. The images are captured on digital image plates, a reusable technology that uses a laser to scan the photo-stimulated phosphor particles, thus rendering a digital image that can be processed by a computer software package. While the image alone is useful, it would be beneficial to have a detailed analysis of the LP captured in the x-ray image, such as a comparison between a pre-launch static image and the post-launch image to determine where damage has occurred and to what extent. The MA TLAB script that was developed will calculate the area of the LP in both the test and original versions, and compare the two images. There are a number of technical challenges that were addressed to develop the analysis. Because the projectile is traveling at hypervelocity, it is difficult to obtain a clear image of the projectile, as the pixel intensity value, which measures the brightness of a pixel, only varies by a few intensity levels from that of the background. In addition, the location of the projectile on the image is always different, owing to variations in the velocity of the LP. To address these issues, a series of image enhancement routines were developed. The development of these techniques anduser interaction scripts will be discussed in this paper.

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“…The phenomenon may shorten life of launchers due to high stress, fatigue, premature wear, delamination of insulators, cracking, pitting, and gouging of rails. McNab et al [3] presented an overview of the naval railgun development program. The long-term Navy goal is to reach a 10 000-round lifetime.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transient Resonance in Hypervelocity Launchers at Critical Velocities

Lewis

Nechitailo

2007

IEEE Trans. Magn.

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A projectile accelerating along launcher rails may cross a range of critical velocities and induce resonance. As a result, the rails and other components exhibit increased displacements and stress that may cause launcher failure. This work is focused on the computation of the critical velocity and investigation of the transient resonance in the assembly of a notional electromagnetic hypervelocity launcher. Several analytical and finite-element models were employed. Different models yielded a good correlation and aided in better understanding of the launcher dynamics. Analysis shows that various components of a launcher can have different critical velocities. The results of this work will further be used to develop a novel design approach based on the idea of controlling the intervals between the critical velocities to minimize the enhanced occurrence of induced resonance regimes in launcher assemblies.

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Development of a naval railgun

Cited by 87 publications

References 10 publications

Electromagnetic launch science and technology in the United States enters a new era

Electromagnetic launch science and technology in the United States enters a new era

Comparative analysis of high velocity projectile images using MATLAB

Transient Resonance in Hypervelocity Launchers at Critical Velocities

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