A high performance railgun launcher design

A railgun barrel has been designed for 90 mm multishot, rapid fire application. This new design is based on the laminated metallic railgun structure design that IAP has employed in constructing railgun barrels which are currently in use in several laboratories. However, this new design incorporates many new and significant features giving it desirable performance characteristics for future use beyond laboratory needs. The design has high stiffness (<1% bore growth at rated current) and an average mass of less than 400 kg/m over its 7 m length. Several novel features result in an inductance gradient greater than 0.5 /spl mu/H/m, in a passive, air-cooled thermal management scheme, and in a dimensionally stable, robust "mostly metal" design. This paper describes the design features of this barrel and results from some of the component testing conducted to develop the design.