Thermodynamic and electrical properties of railgun plasma armatures

Abstract

A model including the nonideal effects is presented that describes the plasma composition, equation of state, internal energy, and electrical conductivity for a very dense and relatively cool plasma like that which exists in a railgun plasma armature. Results are presented for four elements of specific interest for plasma armatures-hydrogen, lithium, aluminum, and copper-for pressures ranging from 1 to 1000 atm and temperatures ranging from 10000 to 50000 K. The results are presented in a graphical format which should prove useful to modelers and experimentalists investigating plasma armatures.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>