A modular electromagnetic railgun accelerator facility named “RAFTAR” (i.e., Railgun Accelerator Facility for Technology and Research) has been commissioned and its performance has been characterized for high velocity impact testing on materials in a single-shot mode. In the first tests, RAFTAR demonstrated an acceleration of more than 1000 m/s for an 8 g solid aluminum-7075 armature projectile. The current fed was 220 kA, having a muzzle time of about 1.75 ms. It is a single pulse breech-fed rectangular bore (14 × 13 mm2) railgun, and its 1.15 m long barrel assembly consists of two parallel copper bars with an inter-gap of 13 mm that are encased within 50 mm thick high strength reinforced fiberglass sheets (Garolite G10-FR4) and bolted from both the sides. RAFTAR is powered by two capacitor bank modules that have a maximum stored energy of 160 kJ each (containing eight 178 μF/15 kV capacitors), two high power ignitron switches, and a pulse shaping inductor. To obtain consistent acceleration of the armature inside the barrel, reversal of driving current is prevented, and its pulse duration is stretched by tactical integration of the crowbar switch and bitter coil inductor in the circuit. Armature projectile velocity measurement in-bore and outside in free space was performed by the time-of-flight technique using indigenously made miniature B-dot sensors and a novel shorting-foil arrangement, respectively. The time resolved measurement of the in-bore armature evidenced a velocity-skin-effect in the high acceleration phase. There is good agreement between the experimentally measured and theoretically predicted efficiency, confirming the optimal choice of operating parameters. The conclusion summarizes important experimental findings and analyzes the underlying causes that limit the performance of railguns.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
December 2022
Research Article|
December 06 2022
Modular electromagnetic railgun accelerator for high velocity impact studies
Rishi Verma
;
Rishi Verma
a)
(Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
2
Homi Bhabha National Institute, BARC Training School Complex
, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai 400094, MH, India
Search for other works by this author on:
J. M. V. V. S. Aravind;
J. M. V. V. S. Aravind
(Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
Search for other works by this author on:
Pankaj Deb;
Pankaj Deb
(Conceptualization, Resources)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
Search for other works by this author on:
J. N. Rao;
J. N. Rao
(Resources)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
Search for other works by this author on:
P. Dey;
P. Dey
(Investigation)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
Search for other works by this author on:
A. K. Dubey;
A. K. Dubey
(Investigation)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
Search for other works by this author on:
R. Shukla;
R. Shukla
(Investigation)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
2
Homi Bhabha National Institute, BARC Training School Complex
, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai 400094, MH, India
Search for other works by this author on:
D. B. Majumder;
D. B. Majumder
(Formal analysis, Validation)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
Search for other works by this author on:
S. K. Sharma;
S. K. Sharma
(Resources)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
2
Homi Bhabha National Institute, BARC Training School Complex
, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai 400094, MH, India
Search for other works by this author on:
Shobhna Mishra;
Shobhna Mishra
(Investigation, Resources)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
Search for other works by this author on:
Manraj Meena;
Manraj Meena
(Investigation, Resources)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
Search for other works by this author on:
Lakshman Rongali;
Lakshman Rongali
(Investigation, Resources)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
Search for other works by this author on:
Bijayalaxmi Sethi;
Bijayalaxmi Sethi
(Investigation, Methodology, Resources)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
Search for other works by this author on:
K. Sagar;
K. Sagar
(Investigation)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
Search for other works by this author on:
G. Vinod Kumar;
G. Vinod Kumar
(Data curation, Investigation, Resources)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
2
Homi Bhabha National Institute, BARC Training School Complex
, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai 400094, MH, India
Search for other works by this author on:
N. S. Babu;
N. S. Babu
(Resources)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
Search for other works by this author on:
Archana Sharma
Archana Sharma
(Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Resources)
1
Pulsed Power & Electromagnetics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility
, Atchutapuram, Vishakhapatnam 531011, AP, India
2
Homi Bhabha National Institute, BARC Training School Complex
, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai 400094, MH, India
Search for other works by this author on:
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 93, 124703 (2022)
Article history
Received:
June 19 2022
Accepted:
November 03 2022
Citation
Rishi Verma, J. M. V. V. S. Aravind, Pankaj Deb, J. N. Rao, P. Dey, A. K. Dubey, R. Shukla, D. B. Majumder, S. K. Sharma, Shobhna Mishra, Manraj Meena, Lakshman Rongali, Bijayalaxmi Sethi, K. Sagar, G. Vinod Kumar, N. S. Babu, Archana Sharma; Modular electromagnetic railgun accelerator for high velocity impact studies. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 1 December 2022; 93 (12): 124703. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0104365
Download citation file:
Pay-Per-View Access
$40.00
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Citing articles via
Overview of the early campaign diagnostics for the SPARC tokamak (invited)
M. L. Reinke, I. Abramovic, et al.
An instrumentation guide to measuring thermal conductivity using frequency domain thermoreflectance (FDTR)
Dylan J. Kirsch, Joshua Martin, et al.
A glovebox-integrated confocal microscope for quantum sensing in inert atmosphere
Kseniia Volkova, Abhijeet M. Kumar, et al.
Related Content
Effect of driving current profile on acceleration efficiency of electromagnetic railgun
AIP Advances (August 2024)
Development of a low voltage railgun in the context of a swept lightning stroke on an aircraft
Rev. Sci. Instrum. (August 2022)
Railgun system using a laser‐induced plasma armature
AIP Conference Proceedings (May 1996)
Analyzing Railguns with Excel: Simple Numerical Integration for the Classroom
Phys. Teach. (October 2018)
Railgun recoil, ampere tension, and the laws of electrodynamics
American Journal of Physics (December 1992)