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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 25, NO.

1, JANUARY 1989

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ELECTROMAGNETIC LAUNCH TECHNOLOGY: THE PROMISE AND THE PROBLEMS


Hans Mark Chancellor The University of Texas System

Introduction It is a great pleasure for me to welcome this group to The University of Texas at Austin. In addition to being your host, I have to confess to another major reason why this field is of strong personal interest to me. My late brother. Professor Peter Mark of Princeton Universitv, was one of the people, along with Dr. Harry Fair, Dr. Henry Kolm (who are both here today) and, of course, Professor William F. Weldon of The University of Texas at Austin who really revived modern interest in electromagnetic launch technology. In a certain sense then, I have a strong family reason for being here in addition to a professional interest in what you are doing.
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current switching systems are needed that can control heavy flows of electric current. Finally, some kind of guide system, be it an electromagnetic railgun or a set of solenoid magnets, is required to launch the projectile. With these devices, a system can be built that would make it possible to launch projectiles having velocities that are far in excess of what is possible with chemical high explosives or rocket techniques. The applications of this technology are obvious, and the one that I believe is most important is to military weapons. The declining relevance of nuclear arms as control more popular accentuates the current trend which is to search for "conventional" means to enhance our combat capability. This is necessary because the likely opponents we have in foreseeable wars will continue to vastly outnumber any armies that the United States and its allies can field. Therefore, the search for technologies that will provide a decisive advantage will always have a very high priority. With the conclusion of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, the situation in Europe demands immediate attention.

What I would like to do for the next few minutes is to talk a little bit about the state of electromagnetic launcher technology and to mix in some promising applications in a more or less stochastic manner. Hopefully, this procedure will then permit us to define some areas of basic scientific research that are critical to achieving the objectives that we have in mind for electromagnetic launch technology. After all, the universities are the centers of basic research

The Promise of Electromaanetic L a u n c h Tech n o lo ay The essential objective of electromagnetic launch technology is to overcome the limits that are inherent in the parameters characteristic of chemically-driven projectiles. BY parameters here, I mean the muzzle velocities, the ultimate kinetic energies of projectiles fired from guns, and the terminal velocities of vehicles driven by rocket propulsion. The Promise
Of

vation for the development of electromagnetic launch technology. As the technical objectives are achieved, we will, in the next decade, come much closer to testing vehicles both on land and at sea that use electromagnetic means for accelerating large projectiles. These will do range due to the high kinetic energy of damage at close motion they possess, A projectile moving in of

as much kinetic energy as the equivalent mass of high explosive that the projectile could carry as a conventional shell. ~ h ~for the militaryf ~ ~

5 km/s

electromagnetic launch

technology is, Of course, to Overcome the thermodynamic limits that govern chemical PrOpUlSiOn. In order to achieve this objective, it is necessary to develop electromagnetic storage devices with energy densities that are comparable to those of high explosives or chemical rocket fuels. This requirement is absolutely basic to anything else that might be done. In addition to energy storage devices, high

application, it is important to understand damage mechanism as well. It is, in fact, high kinetic energy that offers the promise to overcome some of the new protective armor concepts that have been incorporated in the latest armored vehicles. The development of means to test high velocity projectiles and to assess damage mechanisms is a most important facet of electromagnetic launch technology,

0018-9464/89/0100-0017$01.0001989 IEEE

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The other important area in which electromagnetic launch technology is likely to see important applications is in space transportation. Electromagnetic launchers are not really good for getting things from the surface of the earth to earth orbit. The problem is that the velocity profile is wrong. The virtue of an electromagnetic launcher is that it achieves high velocities very quickly, but in the case of transportation to earth orbit, that is actually a drawback. It is not desirable to move rapidly close to the ground where the atmosphere is dense; rather the velocity profile of a rocket which starts slowly and achieves high velocities only at high altitudes is what is required. However, electromagnetic launch technology is excellent for space transportation once one reaches earth orbit. For transportation from one orbit to another, or from orbit to the surface of the moon and back, electromagnetic launcher technology has important advantages. This point was, of course, recognized long ago by a number of people, including Henry Kolm and Gerry O'Neill, who have advocated the use of electromagnetic launchers for space transportation for many years. There is good reason to believe that space launch technology will also be an important motivation for new developments in electromagnetic launchers. President Reagan recently issued a new space policy for the United States. One of the important points of the six that constitute the policy is to expand human presence beyond the earth and into the solar system. This implies the eventual construction of a base on the moon. My own feeling is that the next administration is very likely to announce the goal of placing a permanent base on the moon with human occupants by the year 2000. There are very good technical reasons for believing that electromagnetic launch technology will play a most important part in achieving this particular objective. In addition, and this is probably more important, once a base on the moon is established, then lunar materials will be used to construct various things in orbit around the earth and around the moon. It is in this effort where the use of electromagnetic launch technology will really come into its own. Since the moon has no atmosphere, the electromagnetic acceleration of materials off the surface of the moon is a very promising method for moving large quantities of matter from the surface of the moon into earth orbit. It turns out that it is much more economical to move things from the moon to earth orbit than from the surface of the earth to earth orbit. And this is, of course, the insight that is due to Gerry O'Neill and his collaborators.

Technical Problems
Achieving the objectives that I have just outlined requires the solution of a number of technical problems. Let me try to list these in a more or less systematic manner.

Enerav Storaae Devices


The most commonly used energy storage devices for electromagnetic launchers are homopolar generators (HPGs) or capacitors. The energy density that can be stored in a rotating machine depends on the strength of the material of which the rotor is made, since the energy stored depends on the rotational kinetic energy of the rotor. In the case of capacitors, the energy stored depends on the dielectric constant of the material between the capacitor plates. In recent years, there has been significant progress in the development of strong materials from which rotors can be manufactured and in the creation of dielectric materials with very high polarizabilities. Both of these technologies need to be vigorously pursued.

Switchina Devices
The ability to control high density and high current flows of electrons is critical to the development of electromagnetic launch technology. A wide variety of switching devices ranging from brushes on HPGs, to crowbar switches for the discharge of capacitors, to the contacts that the projectile has to make with the railgun are necessary for success. Constructing such switches depends on a knowledge of material properties as well as an understanding of electric arcs and plasma dynamics for those devices that depend on gases to carry the electric currents.

Rails and Solenoid Accelerators


The projectiles for electromagnetic launch devices are usually accelerated by a railgun which forms the armature of a linear electric motor or by a solenoidal magnet whose fields are energized in sequence as the projectile accelerates. In the case of railguns, the critical technical problem has to do with the contacts between the railgun and the projectile. Successful contacts depend on the proper materials and the proper understanding of the erosion processes that occur as the projectile accelerates. In the case of solenoidal accelerators, the important issue

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is how to develop materials that can take the stresses and strains imposed by very large magnetic fields which are in turn created by the large current pulses through the solenoids. An interesting aspect of solenoidal launchers is to determine whether the new high temperature superconductors that are now being developed have a role to play in electromagnetic launch technology using solenoids.

equation of state of materials that are in pressure ranges of 100 kbar to 1 Mbar is also something that requires further research. Finally, there is the question of the applications of some of the new work in fluid mechanics particularly in the area of chaos theory and turbulence to some of the problems inherent in electromagnetic launch devices.
If I were to list these things systematically, I would ask for support in basic research in the following areas.

Effects of Hiah Acceleration on Proiectiles and ImDact Phvsics


These two areas are important in understanding the applications of electromagnetic launch technology. For example, if "smart" projectiles launched with electromagnetic guns are to have military value, then means must be found to create sensors and electronic equipment in the projectile that can stand levels of acceleration very much higher than those found in conventional artillery. At the same time, it is necessary to study the effects that very high velocity projectiles have on probable targets. In this case, it is necessary to understand the behavior of materials in pressure regimes that are somewhere between those in the multimegabar region experienced in nuclear explosives and those that exist in conventional artillery.

a. Computational physics. This has to do with the applications of high-speed computers to make calculations having high predictive values on various material properties. Computational physics also will have applications in the fluid mechanics inherent in the prediction of the effects the high velocity projectiles have on their targets. b. Development of more accurate equations of state for materials under unusual conditions. In this field, both atomic physics and solid-state physics have a place. In the case of atomic physics, it is important to understand the properties of multi-ionized atoms and the properties of atoms under high pressures. The approximations that work under normal conditions and under very high pressures and temperatures are simply not applicable in the region of interest here. c. Fluid mechanics. This is a very broad field which has other applications that may be much more relevant to basic developments. Nevertheless, the combination of mechanics, electromagnetic phenomena, and fluid phenomena that exist in electromagnetic guns may be unique. It is therefore possible that much can be learned from a basic study of fluid mechanics as related to the other two things that are important in electromagnetic launch technology. I would make a plea with this group that in the development of this new technology attention be paid to basic research in the areas I have just outlined. If this is not done, then I believe we will not be able to command the arsenal of "tricks" that will be needed to make electromagnetic artillery and electromagnetic launchers that have genuinely important practical applications. Let me repeat once again that I am most pleased to be here and to have the opportunity to open this important conference. It is always exciting to be with people who are on the edge of doing something new.

In examining this list, it is interesting to see that all of these problems have in common a requirement that we need to know more about the behavior of materials under unusual conditions. This is the primary challenge that I see in front of us. What is the state of basic research in the area of matter under unusual conditions? This, I believe,
is the important question that must be dealt with before any real progress can be made.

State of Materials Technoloay


Our understanding of the properties of matter depends on quantum mechanics. Conceptually, we know a great deal about what it is that makes materials behave the way they do. The problem tends not to be a conceptual one but rather one which requires the performance of detailed calculations based on fairly well understood concepts. This by itself is an important area of basic research that requires a great deal of attention. The development of means for predicting the properties of materials from basic principles is still something beyond the range of current scientific knowledge. To be able to perform such calculations that have real predictive value could be enormously important to electromagnetic launch technology. The proper approximations to use for looking at the

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