IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 31, NO.

1, JANUARY 1995 261

A Novel Railgun Launcher Design

David P. Bauer
IAP Research, Inc., 2763 Culver Avenue, Dayton OH 45429-3723

Abstmct-Higher efficiency, and smaller power supplies length of the barrel. Only the power supply (or supplies)
are needed for most electromagnetic railgun applications. feeding power near the muzzle of the gun are active at
This paper describes the feasibility evaluation of a novel projectile launch. Considerably less residual magnetic energy
railgun barrel c o n f i i t i o n that addresses these issues. is stored and dissipated at projectile launch, leading to
The Hypervelocity High Efficiency (HYPE) railgun improved railgun efficiency.
concept uses a distributed power feed railgun M i ,but A DES power system has multiple individual power
eliminates the need for many separate distributed power supplies one for each barrel power feed connection. These
supplies. Nested, segmented main rails are individually individual power supplies are normally physically located
conneded to a single pair of augmenting secondary rails. near the barrel feed point and each must be discharged in
The augmenting secondary rails are powered from a single concert with projectile passage. In contrast, the power supply
energy source. A 15 mm square bore, 300 mm long for a breech fed railgun is a single unit, with simple dis-
HYPE railgun was built and tested to evaluate concept charge timing. The DES configuration therefore, tends to be
feasibility. Analytical and experimental results show that noncompact and more complex to operate.
the HYPE confiiiuration is feasible, at least for low A railgun launcher configuration which simultaneously
velocity. achieves minimal residual magnetic flux characteristic of a
DES railgun, with the inherent compactness and simplicity of
INTRODUCITON a breech fed railgun power supply is desirable. A railgun
concept devised to meet these goals is shown schematically in
Electromagnetic railgun systems must be made more Figure 1, and will be referred to as the "HYPE" railgun.
compact and energy efficient for application outside the
laboratory. Railgun systems for mobile applications are
especially hampered by lack of high energy efficiency and
small sized power supplies.
Railgun efficiency (defined as the ratio of launch package
muzzle kinetic energy to initial stored electrical energy) has
a first order impact on system size because losses in the
railgun are magnified as inefficiencies in each component of
the power supply train. To compound the problem, most of
the wasted energy is dissipated resistively and must be
removed from the conductors by thermal management
system. Low railgun efficiency therefore, leads to sizable
power supplies and large t h e m 1 management systems.
One important source of wasted energy in a railgun shot,
results from residual magnetic flux stored in the railgun
barrel at projectile launch. This magnetic flux is difficult to
recover. Existing systems usually end up dissipating this
energy resistively in the rails and in an arc at the muzzle.
Conventional breech fed railguns often must have residual
magnetic energy to achieve the desired launch velocity with
( I 1092)
a fixed barrel length. Significantly higher performance
efficiency is possible if residual magnetic energy can be re-
duced. Fig. 1. (a) The HYPE railgun is comprised of a pair of augmenting rails,
Distributed energy store (DES) railguns have been pro- nested segmented main rails, and stationary current crossovers; @) power
supply energy is initially discharged into the augmenting turn inductance
posed as a means of achieving higher efficiency[l)[2][3]. In (shading shows where energy is stored); (c) as the projectile travels along the
a DES powered railgun, energy is supplied to the rails at gun, current is supplied to the armature by more than one rail segment; no
multiple intervals from multiple power supplies over the energy remains in inactive segments behind armature; (d) as projectile exits
barrel there is very little residual energy.
Manuscript received April 29, 1994

0018-9464~95$04.00O 1995 IEEE

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 268
HYPE CONCEPT
The HYPE railgun consists of a pair of augmenting
conductors located alongside (and outside of) a pair of nested,
segmented main rails. The nested, segmented main rails are
actually many conducting segments (each segment will
normally be less than 100 cm long) embedded in insulator as
shown in Figure 2 and illustrated in an overall concept in
Figure 3. Multiple current crossovers, located along the
length of the gun, connect the segmented rails to the aug-
menting rails as indicated in Figure 1 and Figure 3. Each
nested, segmented rail is connected through these current
crossovers to the augmenting rail situated on the opposite side
of the gun, thus obtaining an augmenting magnetic field
effect.
Fig. 2. Several individual conductorsegments simultaneouslydelivercurrent
to the armature.
Initially, a power supply (for example a capacitor bank)
c o ~ e c t e dto the muzzle end of the augmenting rails is
discharged into the HYPE railgun, with a projectile and
armature located at the breech (as depicted in Figure l(b)).
During the capacitor discharge, energy is transferred and
stored in the augmenting tum with the current path being
completed in the railgun by the armature. The armature
"short circuits" the current path as it moves down the barrel
and contacts the second main rail segment. Current is then
shared between the rail segments as it begins to flow into the
second segment. Current sharing occurs with more segments
as the armature contacts, and shorts these segments (as
depicted in Figure 1 (c)). As each new segment becomes
active, less current flows in the previous segments due to
lower impedance of the path through the segments closest to
the armature. Between six and eight rail segments will be
actively carrying current to the armature except at the breech
and muzzle. As the armature moves past a segment, current
will completely commutate out of that segment and into those
in contact with the armature. Close mutual magnetic cou-
pling between rail segments results in very low energy
dissipation as each rail segment is disconnected from the
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armature and de-energized.
Energy stored in the magnetic field (represented by the
shaded region in Figures l(b), l(c), and l(d)) of the augment-
ing tum/energy store drives the current and hence accelerates
the projectile. As the projectile accelerates along the barrel,
part of the electrical circuit is "removed" as each rail segment
is de-energized. Augmenter inductance decreases as the
projectile moves along the barrel, tending to keep the current
constant. When the projectile exits the muzzle, only the final
rail segment is energized, limiting the residual stored energy
to a very small quantity.
Physical implementation of a HYPE railgun concept can be
accomplished as shown in Figure 3. The nested, segmented
main rails are fabricated with multiple small conductors
embedded in an insulator. Each segment conductor has a
relatively small cross section because of the short duration in
contact with the armature and hence short conduction time.
The augmenting conductors have large cross section to
minimize ohmic loses.
ARMATURE7 \\
LAMINATE STRUCTURE-J
E RAIL SEGMENTS
D MAIN I*'O
Fig. 3. The HYPE railgun concept design.
EXPERIMENTAL
VALIDATION
A small scale HYPE railgun was built and tested to
develop fabrication techniques, to validate models, and to
prove feasibility of the HYPE concept. A gun with the
physical parameters summarized in Table 1was constructed.
 Bore Size 15 mm

Bore Shape square

Segment Length 85 mm

Segment Spacing 11 mm

Overall Length 300 mm

No. of Simultaneously Active 7
Segments
Segment Conductor Size 1.6 mm x 9.5 mm
Intersegment Insulator Spacing 0.4 mm

Aunmenter Rail Size I 12.7 mm x 38.1 mm

Copper (CDA110 Half Hard) augmenting and main rail

segments were used. The augmenting rails are copper bar
1.27 x 3.81 x 30.5 cm. A photograph of the nested main rail
is shown in Figure 4, and a drawing shows the details in
Figure 5.

10.8 mm
U "

mm
L l n t e r s e g m e n t Insulator
L C o p p e r Rail Segment

Fig. 5 The rail segments were on a 10 degree angle.

rail segments active at any given time. Note that a wedge of

Fig. 4. Nested HYPE rails with 22 segments were fabricated.
Each nested main rail is composed of copper strips 0.16 x
1.27 x 11.4 cm separated by strips of G-10 insulator 0.04 x
1.27 x 10 cm. These strips were laminated together at a 10
degree angle (with respect to the bore centerline) using a
high-peel strength commercial epoxy. Tabs were bent at one
end of the copper strips to form a vertical connection for
attaching the crossovers. At the 10 degree angle and the 1.08
cm pitch, the rail is designed to have between seven and eight
G-10 glued to the breech end of the rail (right side in Figure
4) provides a continuous sliding surface to the projectile.
The current crossovers are 5.08 cm long strips of equal cross
section as the rail segments and were soldered to the rail tabs.
The crossovers were located above the bore insulator, and fit
into slots machined into the tops of the augmenting rails. A
photo of the complete HYPE prototype core (without struc-
ture), including the placement of the instrumentation leads is
shown in Figure 6. The completely assembled HYPE gun is
shown in Figure 7.

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 The gun inductance characteristics were measured with an
Hewlett Packard model HP 4912A Impedance Analyzer. The
inductance was measured as a metal armature was moved
P
along the length of the rail
The self and mutual inductances of the augmenting turn
and main segments were measured independently. The
measured self inductance gradient of the augmenting rail
( 0 . 5 ~H/m) and of the rail segments ( 0 . 5 6 ~H/m) compared
to within 8% of the values computed from Kerrisk[4]. The
mutual inductance between an adjacent rail segment pair and
a rail segment pair separated by one segment were measured.
Combined with the measured segment self inductance, the
mutual coupling between adjacent segments was computed to
be 0.95 with the armature positioned at the end of the
segment. The coupling coefficient between a pair of seg-
ments separated by an intermediate segment is 0.75. This
high coupling leads to efficient energy transfer between
B
segments.

Fig. 6. A 30 cm long HYPE core was assembled. ARMATUREPULLTEST RESULTS

The first tests were performed to measure segment currents

Fig. 7. The HYPE core was installed in a bolted clamp structure.
under controlled current and velocity conditions. We
therefore built an experiment in which a metal armature was
pulled (by a pneumatic actuator) through the HYPE prototype
barrel. Nearly constant current at 2000A was supplied via a
battery/inductor power supply, made with eight 12 volts
batteries connected to a 30 tum welding cable inductor
(-250 pH).
The experimental setup included Rogowski coils, muzzle
and breech voltage leads, and B-dot loops. To measure
currents in the individual rail segments, four 0.3cm diameter
Rogowski coils were made, and wrapped around the cross-
overs c o ~ e ~ t etod four consecutive rail segments. The
instrumented segments were located in the middle of the main
rail and were chosen to find a steady-state response. A fifth
Rogowski coil was used to measured the total power supply
current.
A trailing arm type, metal armature &de of 7075T6
alu$num was used in the experiments. The armature had an
overall length of 2.5 cm with a contact patch on each arm of
dimensions 3 mm x 15 mm. A pneumatic piston assembly
pulled the armature along the bore via a G-10 rod. The
velocity was consistently 20 m/s.
Individual segment current data are shown in Figure 8 for
the four consecutive segments instrumented with Rogowski
coils. These data show that essentially, each segment carried
most of the current consecutively. For example, during the
period from about 0.0 to 0.7 ms the second (instrumented)
segment carried a substantial fraction of the total current. At
about 0.6 ms, when the third segment became active, the
current in the second segment dropped rapidly. The segment
current had almost retumed to zero by the time the armature
reaches about 50% to 60% of the segment length. The
impedance through the other segments is apparently much

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smaller by that point. The same basic circuit behavior was
predicted by an electrical circuit model at similar velocity
conditions[5].
/ / / ,
Fig. 8. Each segment in-turn, camed the total current.
The voltage lead records from this test show that at 4.392
ms the armature left the main rails, resulting in an l00V arc,
as shown in Figure 9. Prior to exit the armature voltage was
only 1 to 2V. Examination of the voltage records prior to
armature exit shows a nearly constant voltage. This lack of
voltage spikes indicates that no arcs occurred during the time
in which the armature was in the bore, confirming the arcless
segment-to-segment current shunting.
I lime (us)
W " W 4
2-
1-
__
Fig. 9. The current transferred from segment-to-segment with no arcing.
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271
LAUNCHTEST RESULTS
Launch tests were performed with the 15 mm HYPE barrel
to evaluate its electrical behavior at higher (compared to the
pulled armature tests) velocities. In particular, the goals were
to evaluate acceleration performance and to measure main rail
segment current sharing.
The HYPE barrel was powered by a capacitive discharge
supply consisting of a 300pF capacitor connected to a 2pH
inductor. A triggered ignitron switch initiated the discharge,
and a silicon diode crowbarred the circuit at peak current to
obtain a decaying exponential waveform. A one meter long
helium gas preaccelerator was used to give the projectile a
velocity of about 200 m/s. The projectile was a trailing arm
metallic armature attached to a nylon forebody. The total
launch mass was 17.8 g, and its overall length was 40 mm.
A pair of electrically conductive wires, located betyeen the
preaccelerator and HYPE barrel, were sheared by the moving
projectile. These break wires provided position-time data and
a triggering mechanism for the capacitive power supply.
Projectile position-time data down range from the HYPE
muzzle was measured with MAVIS[6] style magnetic detec-
tors.
Launches at peak currents up to 92 kA were performed
with this setup. Figure 10 shows the current record for the
highest current test. The projectile exited the muzzle at a
time of 1 ms on this test. Armature contact arcing initiated
at about 850 us, changed the slope of the current decay as
indicated in Figure 10.
80 i
0-
Fig. 10. The highest current employed in the HYPEgun had a 93kA peak.
The projectile entrance and exit velocities were computed
as 192 m/s and 239 m/s respectively, for the 92 kA peak
current test. This short length HYPE gun therefore, provided
a momentum increase to the projectile of 0.84 kg-m/s. An
overall assessment of the HYPE railgun performance can be
 212

determined by computing an equivalent effective inductance

gradient determined by dividing two times this momentum
change (i.e., 1.68) by the electrical action during transit in
the barrel. The action numerically computed from the
current record shown in Figure 11 is 1.9 X 106 A's, which
results in an effective equivalent inductance gradient of about 20-
0 . 9 ~H/m. This is within about 10 percent of the value
computed (1.Op H/m) based on the measured self and mutual 15-
inductances described above. 10-
Rogowski loops were inserted around crossover conductors
in order to measure three consecutive main rail segment 5-
currents. The measured currents for the 92 kA peak current O----
test, are displayed in Figure 11. The three currents do not
sum to the total current shown in Figure 10 because in this 15 -5
650
' 760 760 aao 850 goo 960 1000 i o 5 0 1 CO
mm HYPE gun, there are at least seven rail egments actively Time (us) (1 3fW
conducting current to the armature at any instant. Current in
each segment in-turn rises to a peak and then falls as down
bore segments create a lower impedance current path through
the advancing projectile. As the figure shows, current in the Fig. 11. Current transfers to successive rail segments as the projectile
first two segments (number 11 and number 12 counted from advances.
the breech) falls rapidly to zero, while the third segment
(number 13) carried a low level of current even after the CONCLUSIONS
projectile exited the gun. It appears that the armature contact
transition to arcing created a stationary secondary current The high efficiency of DES railguns, and the simplicity and
path across the bore. Except for this characteristic, the compactness of breech fed power supplies are both desirable
measured currents display similar behavior to circuit model for mobile railgun applications. The HYPE railgun design
predictions[3). provides a potential means of achieving a marriage between
Additional tests at even higher velocities and with a longer the two approaches. The cost is a more complex railgun
gun are required to make comprehensive comparisons core. Initial testing shows that the HYPE design provides
between experimental and analytical results. Eddy currents projectile acceleration at the velocities tested so far. Efficient
in the current crossovers and segment-to-segment performance of the HYPE design must be proven at higher
commutation losses may become important at higher velocity. velocity. Adverse transient electromagnetic interactions
Higher velocity experiments with a longer gun will allow this between the complex trail segments, may significantly affect
measurements/evaluations to be accomplished. efficiency.

REFERENCES

R.A. Marshall, "The Use of Nested Chevron Rails in a Distributed

Energy Store Railgun, " IEEE Trans. Mag., MAG-20, pp. 389-90,
March 1984.
J.V. Parker, "Electromagnetic Projectile Acceleration Utilizing
Distributed Energy Sources, :I. Appl. Phys.53 (lo), pp. 6710-6723
(1982).
R.A. Marshall, "Distributed Energy Store Railgun: The Limiting Case,
"IEEE Trans. Mag., Vo1.27, No.1, pp. 136-138, January 1981.
Kerrisk, J.F., "Current Distribution and Inductance Calculations for
Rail-Gun Conductors, " LA=9092-MS, Los Alamos National
Laboratory; November 1981.
Bauer, D.P., Geers, S., Daugherty C., Sumner, B., Final Report
"High Efticiency Hypervelocity Railgun Launcher - Phase I, IAP-TR-
91-07, April 1992.
Moody, R.L., Konrad, C.H., "Magnetic Induction System for Two-
Stage Gun Projectile Velocity Measurement," Sandia Report,
SAND84-0638, May 1984.

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