Experimental study of sliding electrical contacts in a multi-shot railgun

The study of sliding electrical contacts between the rails and the armature is of great importance for a multi-shot railgun. A 10 mm square-bore railgun has been developed for the experimental study, with a pulsed-power supply of a 0.2 MJ capacitor bank. In the multi-shot experiment, a number of aluminum armatures are launched under the same condition with the deposit covering the copper rails not polished. The result indicates that the state of the armature-rail interface in a multi-shot railgun tends to be much better and there is less arc erosion than in a single-shot one. The armature in the latter shot starts to move earlier than in the former, and the muzzle velocity increases with the number of shots. It is concluded that the layer of deposit generated from the former shots, rich in