Hypervelocity macroparticle accelerator experiments at CEM-UT

Weeks, D.A.; Weldon, W.F.; Zowarka, R.C.

doi:10.1109/20.100999

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 2 publications

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“…The rail expansion can cause the armature to disconnect from the rails, resulting in poor launch performance. Previous reports have highlighted the significant influence of railgun stiffness on launch performance [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. However, researchers have been more interested in material selection [ 6 ], cross-section [ 7 ], and the moment of inertia [ 8 ] of a single component.…”

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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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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Magnetoplasmadynamic acceleration of solid body in a railgun

Beilis

2023

J Electr Propuls

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A physical model and a mathematical approach were developed to describe ponderomotive acceleration a body pushed by plasma column of high-current arc in a railgun. In contrast to the previously published studies, the arc plasma generation was considered by taking into account kinetics of heavy particle fluxes in a non-equilibrium layer near the vaporizating (ablating) rails and the phenomena of heat and mass transfer and electric sheath at rail surfaces. The self-consistent numerical analysis has been conducted for a wide range of arc currents (up to 2MA). It has been shown that the electron temperature was determined mainly by the Joule energy dissipation supporting high degree of ionization. It has been determined that the arc voltage is about 102 V. The rails temperatures are relatively low (~ 3000 K) and therefore, the electron flux emitted from the cathode manly due to thermionic emission enhanced by Schottky effect is lower than the flux of ions from the plasma, which supported the current continuity at the cathode region. The calculated velocity vs of the plasma-solid body increased with the arc current (I) showing tendency to saturation. In range of I = 0.5–2 MA the vs slightly increased from 5 × 105 to 10 × 105 cm/s when the rail length increased from 1 to 3 m respectively. The dependence of the velocity on the arc current and the calculated plasma parameters are in range of those values observed experimentally. The nature of the velocity with arc current saturation is explained by presence of the dynamic pressure resulting in predicted velocity dependence on the arc current as 4-th root.

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The flux-line lattice in superconductors

1995

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Magnetic flux can penetrate a type-II superconductor in form of Abrikosov vortices (also called flux lines, flux tubes, or fluxons) each carrying a quantum of magnetic flux φ 0 = h/2e. These tiny vortices of supercurrent tend to arrange in a triangular flux-line lattice (FLL) which is more or less perturbed by material inhomogeneities that pin the flux lines, and in high-T c superconductors (HTSC's) also by thermal fluctuations. Many properties of the FLL are well described by the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau theory or by the electromagnetic London theory, which treats the vortex core as a singularity. In Nb alloys and HTSC's the FLL is very soft mainly because of the large magnetic penetration depth λ: The shear modulus of the FLL is c 66 ∼ 1/λ 2 , and the tilt modulus c 44 (k) ∼ (1 + k 2 λ 2 ) −1 is dispersive and becomes very small for short distortion wavelength 2π/k ≪ λ. This softness is enhanced further by the pronounced anisotropy and layered structure of HTSC's, which strongly increases the penetration depth for currents along the c-axis of these (nearly uniaxial) crystals and may even cause a decoupling of two-dimensional vortex lattices in the Cu-O layers. Thermal fluctuations and softening may "melt" the FLL and cause thermally activated depinning of the flux lines or of the two-dimensional "pancake vortices" in the layers. Various phase transitions are predicted for the FLL in layered HTSC's. Although large pinning forces and high critical currents have been achieved, the small depinning energy so far prevents the application of HTSC's as conductors at high temperatures except in cases when the applied current and the surrounding magnetic field are small.

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Hypervelocity macroparticle accelerator experiments at CEM-UT

Cited by 6 publications

References 2 publications

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

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

Magnetoplasmadynamic acceleration of solid body in a railgun

The flux-line lattice in superconductors

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