Magnetoplasmadynamic acceleration of solid body in a railgun

Abstract A physical model and a mathematical approach were developed to describe ponderomotive acceleration body pushed by plasma column of high-current arc in railgun. In contrast the previously published studies, generation was considered taking into account kinetics heavy particle fluxes non-equilibrium layer near vaporizating (ablating) rails phenomena heat mass transfer electric sheath at rail surfaces. The self-consistent numerical analysis has been conducted for wide range currents (up 2MA). It shown that electron temperature determined mainly Joule energy dissipation supporting high degree ionization. voltage is about 10 2 V. temperatures are relatively low (~ 3000 K) therefore, flux emitted from cathode manly due thermionic emission enhanced Schottky effect lower than ions plasma, which supported current continuity region. calculated velocity v s plasma-solid increased with (I) showing tendency saturation. I = 0.5–2 MA slightly 5 × cm/s when length 1 3 m respectively. dependence on parameters those values observed experimentally. nature saturation explained presence dynamic pressure resulting predicted as 4-th root.