An electro-explosively actuated mini-flyer launcher

Abstract

It’s crucial to develop shock loading techniques in laboratory to create pressure and temperature jumps for a wide variety of studies in material science. In this paper we have developed an electro-explosively actuated mini-flyer launcher capable of ejecting a plastic mini-flyer, typically 0.6 mm in diameter, up to several km/s. When prepared with microelectromechanical system (MEMS) scale methods, it can be mass-produced and takes only four steps, lowering manufacturing cost. Particularly, it was designed and integrated with a high-power high-voltage switch together, omitting expensive vacuum switches as well as interconnections between components. Four auxiliary exploding foils were first exploded at a certain trigger voltage to determine the optimal size, and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film was used to measure shock pressure of electro-explosion to estimate whether it’s enough to destroy the dielectric layer between top and bottom electrodes. Electrical characterizations were then carried out to obtain some important parameters, such as delay time, jitter time, risetime and peak current flowing through main exploding foil, at a series of firing voltages ranging from 600 V to 1400 V, and the results revealed that peak current increases with the rise of firing voltage dramatically, high-current pulse can be obtained at lower firing voltage, and delay time and risetime are almost constant. Finally, Photon Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) and high-speed camera were utilized to record the acceleration histories of flyers at different firing voltages, and the results showed that the flyer velocity can be controlled by the adjustment of firing energy. All the efforts demonstrated that the mini-flyer launcher is feasible and attractive.