VT Electromagnetic RAILGUN
Virginia Tech's Energy Conversion Systems Laboratory (ECSL)
has been working with the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahlgren to design,
construct and perform research on an electromagnetic
launcher. This reduced scale railgun is now fully operational, features programmable acceleration and can serve as a testbed for new
technologies for the Navy's full-scale railgun. The high voltage pulse forming network (PFN)
is comprised of several custom-built pulsed-power modules and has an overall capacity of over 1,000,000A.
Advanced safety features and sophisticated controls via optic fiber are
made possible by several microprocessors. This program is a part of NAVSEA's Naval Engineering Education Consortium (NEEC)
that aims to develop a future workforce for the navy through interdisciplinary university research.