Operating characteristics and modeling of the LLNL 100-kV electric gun

In the electric gun, the explosion of an electrically heated metal foil and the accompanying magnetic forces drive a thin flyer plate up a short barrel. Flyer velocities of up to 18 km/s make the gun useful for hypervelocity impact studies. The authors review the technological evolution of the exploding-metal circuit elements that power the gun, describe the 100-kV electric gun designed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in some detail, and present the general principles of electric gun operation. They compare the experimental performance of the LLNL gun with a simple model and with predictions of a magnetohydrodynamics code.<
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