A multistage distributed energy bench-top electromagnetic launcher

A multi-stage energy distributed bench-top electromagnetic launcher is a way of testing the re-striking issues, which affect the velocity of the armature, associated with an electromagnetic launcher. Additional advantages of the multi-stage energy distributed scheme include a reduction in resistive losses and less residual inductive energy stored in the rails. An electromagnetic launcher is also known as a railgun. The bench top railgun used in a two stage energy distributed system sets the parameters and design for a five stage energy distributed system. The tests done on the five stage energy distributed system demonstrated real time switching of downstream stages. In addition to instrumentation control, diagnostics were built including Rogowski coils, B-dots, and a flux ruler. After the solid armature tests were completed, construction was started on a free running arc experiment. The results from this experiment will set up the parameters and design for a multi-stage energy distributed free running arc railgun.