The evaluation and measurement of the effect of fuse materials and masses on railgun performance

The HERA (High Energy Railgun Apparatus) railgun device at Texas Tech University has been used to investigate the effects of armature fuses on plasma armature railguns. The fuse mass (thickness) was varied for both copper and aluminum fuses over a range of 0.05 g to l.l5 g in a l cm round bore geometry. Armature velocity and velocity saturation effects were observed. While holding railgun current and total projectile mass constant the fuse mass and material were varied. This paper will present the findings from the research, including representative data on velocity versus fuse material and mass, and velocity saturation. The experimental setup and methods will also be described.