Experiments with brush armatures: new technical solutions

Schneider, M.; Schneider, R.; Eckenfels, D.

doi:10.1109/elt.2004.1398057

Cited by 8 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The decrease is caused by the muzzle arc of the loader. The latter reduces significantly the signal-to-noise ratio of Doppler systems due to the existence of free charged particles [10]. Later on, at about 5.5 ms, the arc extinguishes and the Doppler signal returns.…”

Section: B Electromagnetic Loadingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ISL Rapid Fire Railgun Project RAFIRA—Part II: First Results

2009

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This paper reports on the rapid fire railgun (RAFIRA) project recently launched at French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis(ISL) with the aim of investigating the multishot capacity of the armature technology used at the ISL. The latter is characterized by the use of multiple metal fiber brush armatures. The project started with the development of a new medium-caliber launcher (25 mm 25 mm) named RAFIRA and a suitable loading system, as described in part I of the set of papers. This part II summarizes the major results obtained with RAFIRA in a single-shot mode and briefly explains the method of optimizing its performance. The experimental realization of the loading system described in part I is presented. First results regarding the performance of this loader are presented. Suitable conditions allowing multishot experiments were worked out. This paper concludes by presenting the first multishot experiments performed using the ISL armature technology. Already in the first tests, RAFIRA has accelerated projectiles up to more than 1000 m/s while achieving cadences around 30 Hz. The sliding contact performance of these experiments is briefly discussed.

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Section: B Electromagnetic Loadingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ISL Rapid Fire Railgun Project RAFIRA—Part II: First Results

2009

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“…The concept of a separating sabot [10] takes into account these findings and also addresses the problem of parasitic mass from multiple brush armatures: once a brush can no longer contribute to the accelerating force it and its corresponding part of the sabot are left behind. The experimental details of a separating sabot with two segments have been explained in [10]. Meanwhile, muzzle velocities of 2 km/s have been obtained.…”

Section: A Separating Sabot Techniquementioning

confidence: 98%

“…With the aid of the newly introduced Doppler radar technique [10], it was shown that in the case of multiple-in shot direction separated-brush armatures the following switching mechanism takes place. At a certain point the rear brush is disconnected from the rails due to insufficient length and the current previously passing through it is switched to other brushes still in contact with the rails [8].…”

Section: A Separating Sabot Techniquementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is because the transition to arcing contact continues to be a problem for all types of solid armatures [3]- [5]. During the last decade, the ISL activities have focused predominantly on the use of metal fiber brush armatures [6]- [10]. In particular, the facility EMA3 has served as the primary middle-caliber railgun for contact performance studies and armature development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Advanced Rail-Sabot Configurations for Brush Armatures

Schneider

2007

IEEE Trans. Magn.

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This paper reports on experimental results obtained at the ISL-railgun facility EMA3 (muzzle velocity 0 2 km/s, applied energy per shot prim 1 MJ, = 3 m, regular cal. = 15 mm 30 mm, (multiple) metal fiber brush armatures) from 2001 to 2005. Several techniques with the aim of investigating contact performance up to 2 km/s were developed during this period. These techniques include: 1) quasi-segmented and wedge shaped rail configurations, which vary the width of the rail as a function of the rail length in order to maximize the performance of multiple brush armatures; 2) separating sabot technique, for which the latest experimental results and some calculated figures of merit based on a simple model are presented; and 3) new contact materials for solving the problem of gouging at very high contact transition velocities. Some experimental results obtained with brush armatures are presented. The paper concludes by presenting detailed results of a representative shot combining all of the mentioned techniques and clearly demonstrating their capacities. A lower limit of the contact transition velocity of 1800 m/s has been observed, increasing the previously observed value of 1100 m/s significantly.

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“…The decrease is caused by the muzzle arc of the loader. The latter reduces significantly the signal to noise ratio of Doppler systems due to the existence of free charged particles [10].…”

Section: B Electromagnetic Loadingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ISL Rapid Fire Railgun Project RAFIRA Part II: First Results

Schneider

Woetzel

Wenning

2008

2008 14th Symposium on Electromagnetic Launch Technology

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This paper reports on the rapid fire railgun (RAFIRA) project recently launched at ISL with the aim of investigating the multishot capacity of the armature technology used at the ISL. The latter is characterized by the use of multiple metal fiber brush armatures. The project started with the development of a new medium caliber launcher (25 mm x 25 mm) named RAFIRA and a suitable loading system, as described in part I of the set of papers. This part II summarizes the major results obtained with RAFIRA in single-shot mode and briefly explains the method of optimizing its performance. The experimental realization of the loading system described in part I is presented. First results regarding the performance of this loader are presented. Suitable conditions allowing multishot experiments were worked out. The paper concludes by presenting the first multishot experiments performed using the ISL armature technology. Already in the first tests, RAFIRA has accelerated projectiles up to more than 1000 m/s, while achieving cadences around 30 Hz. The sliding contact performance of these experiments is briefly discussed.

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Experiments with brush armatures: new technical solutions

Cited by 8 publications

References 10 publications

The ISL Rapid Fire Railgun Project RAFIRA—Part II: First Results

The ISL Rapid Fire Railgun Project RAFIRA—Part II: First Results

Advanced Rail-Sabot Configurations for Brush Armatures

The ISL Rapid Fire Railgun Project RAFIRA Part II: First Results

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