Design and Characterization of a Coaxial Plasma Railgun for Jet Collision Experiments

Plasma railguns are electromagnetic accelerators used to produce controlled high velocity plasma jets. This thesis discusses the design and characterization of a small coaxial plasma railgun intended to accelerate argon-helium plasma jets. The railgun will be used for the study of plasma shocks in jet collisions. The railgun is mounted on a KF-40 vacuum port and operated using a 90 kA, 11 kV LC pulse forming network. Existing knowledge of coaxial railgun plasma instabilities and material interactions at vacuum and plasma interfaces are applied to the design. The design of individual gun components is detailed. Jet velocity and density are characterized by analyzing diagnostic data collected from a Rogowski coil, interferometer, and photodiode. Peak line-integrated electron number densities of approximately 8 × 10¹⁵ cm^-2 and jet velocities of tens of km/s are inferred from the data recorded from ten experimental pulses.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Coleman, Mathew Riley

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Pierson, Mark Alan
• Adams, Colin

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Meadows, Joseph

• coaxial plasma gun
• plasma-jet
• plasma dynamics

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:29355

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/102740