Electromagnetic acceleration activities at the French-German Research Institute Saint-Louis (ISL)

An overview of the ISL activities on electromagnetic accelerations is presented. A railgun system with a 15 mm round-bore barrel and a length of 1.5 m has been designed and tested. The railgun is powered from a 500 kJ capacitor bank. Using a 2.5 mu H variable storage inductor, the maximum current reaches 450 kA. An He light gas injector preaccelerates the projectile up to a velocity of 500 m/s. A 3.5 g projectile driven by a plasma armature can be accelerated up to 5000 m/s. The first experimental results obtained with this facility are presented and compared with the results of numerical simulations.<
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