Manufacturing and testing of an air-core compulsator driven 0.60 caliber railgun system

Abstract

A laboratory-based, small-caliber, electromagnetic launcher and compensated pulsed alternator power supply are being tested. The objective of the program is to develop a compact, lightweight testbed capable of accelerating a salvo of three 32 g masses to 2 km/s at a rate of 10 Hz. The 0.60 caliber, augmented railgun is powered by an 850 kg self-excited, air-core compulsator which develops 674 MW peak power delivered through a solid-state, silicon-controlled rectifier closing switch. The incremental test plan is scheduled to bring the system to full power levels during the summer of 1992. Critical component fabrication and assembly details of the compulsator and supporting subsystems are presented. Early system commissioning and test data are presented, including low-speed (8000 r/min) tests of the compulsator involving external excitation of the field coil.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>