The ISL Rapid Fire Railgun Project RAFIRA Part I: Technical Aspects and Design Considerations

Schneider, M.; Woetzel, M.; Wang, Wenning; Walch, Denis

doi:10.1109/tmag.2008.2008468

Cited by 40 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…1. Dynamic railgun experiments were realized using the railgun RAFIRA [5]. The sensors are placed in a GRP block to protect them from electrical, mechanical and thermal damage.…”

Section: Measurement Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement of the Magnetic Field Distribution in Railguns Using CMR-B-Scalar Sensors

et al. 2009

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“…1. Dynamic railgun experiments were realized using the railgun RAFIRA [5]. The sensors are placed in a GRP block to protect them from electrical, mechanical and thermal damage.…”

Section: Measurement Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement of the Magnetic Field Distribution in Railguns Using CMR-B-Scalar Sensors

et al. 2009

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“…1) CuCr Rails: For CuCr rails, we obtained muzzle velocities (v CuCr ) of up to 1600 m/s shot with a fire rate of 50 Hz, outclassing conventional weapon systems [7]. But already at lower energies (0.97 and 1.13 MJ), we obtained muzzle velocities of over 1100 m/s for both shots outclassing conventional weapon systems in terms of velocity and fire rate.…”

Section: Muzzle Velocity and Projectile Exit Timesmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…EXPERIMENTAL SETUP RAFIRA is a linear electromagnetic accelerator (rectangular caliber of 25 × 25 mm 2 ) with which up to three shots in a row can be performed [3], [7]. The main accelerator, whose external housing consists of glass-fiber reinforced plastic (GRP) bars, is 3-m long.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of the Rail Material on the Multishot Performance of the Rapid Fire Railgun

Wild

Schuppler

Alouahabi

et al. 2015

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

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The rapid fire railgun (RAFIRA), a unique railgun that can be operated in multishot mode, is well suited for the study of the influence of different rail materials on velocity and electrical contact of the armature and/or the wear of different rail materials. That is why we performed experiments with RAFIRA operated in multishot mode (firing rate of 50 Hz), using different rail materials (CuCr and Dural) and various shot energies. For these experiments, the shot energy for RAFIRA was raised, for the first time, up to the maximum energy at a disposal of 1.45 MJ per shot with projectile masses of over 120 g. In this way, we were able to show that the influence of the rail material depends on the applied shot energy: for low shot energies (<1 MJ), CuCr rails show better results in terms of velocities and exit times of the projectiles. This effect vanishes for high shot energies (>1 MJ). Whereas in terms of electrical contact, Dural rails show both less erosion and the capability to maintain a solid sliding contact until shot out for all energies applied.

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“…The development of ISL's high-power medium-caliber rapid fire railgun (RAFIRA) can be observed as a logical conclusion of these investigations [1]. In fact, the RAFIRA project was originally triggered by promising results obtained using brush armature technology at other medium-caliber railguns [2], [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-Shot Performance of RAFIRA

Schneider

Schuppler

Alouahabi

2015

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

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The rapid fire railgun (RAFIRA) developed at the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis (ISL) is a medium-caliber (25 mm × 25 mm) system designed to obtain very high fire rates (>50 Hz). It has an acceleration length of 3 m and is therefore comparable with existing close-in weapon systems such as Goalkeeper or Phalanx. In this paper, the singleshot performance of RAFIRA is presented. While RAFIRA has, in the past, mainly been used for multishot studies, its 3.4-MJ power supply allowed testing speed limits of the brush armature technology used at the ISL. The combination of light-weight sabots made from glass fiber-reinforced plastic and multiple metal fiber bundles acting as armatures allowed muzzle velocities in excess of 2 km/s while exhibiting excellent sliding contact performance throughout the launch. Corresponding experimental findings for varying projectile configurations and primary energies are presented and discussed.

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The ISL Rapid Fire Railgun Project RAFIRA Part I: Technical Aspects and Design Considerations

Cited by 40 publications

References 14 publications

Measurement of the Magnetic Field Distribution in Railguns Using CMR-B-Scalar Sensors

Measurement of the Magnetic Field Distribution in Railguns Using CMR-B-Scalar Sensors

The Influence of the Rail Material on the Multishot Performance of the Rapid Fire Railgun

Single-Shot Performance of RAFIRA

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