Electrical and Optical Test of a Semi-Combustible Plasma Generator via a Plasma Ignition Simulator

Abstract

Electrothermal-chemical (ETC) launch technology can considerably increase the ballistic performance and optimize the fire range and range overlap of a 155-mm unimodular charge howitzer. To discuss the plasma ignition process of a semi-combustible plasma generator (SCPG) with a special tubular semi-combustible medium, a plasma ignition simulator (PIS) for the 155-mm unimodular charge howitzer is designed and manufactured to provide a realistic chamber environment. The optical and electrical measurements of a hybrid arc controlled ablation (ACA) plasma are operated via several sensors, a high-speed digital camera, and a compact spectrometer. Test results show that the PIS can satisfy the design requirements of the research of the plasma ignition process. When the discharge voltage is 6.5 kV, hybrid plasma propagation in the simulator chamber is observed and detected. The electronic excitation temperature of the hybrid plasma is <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\approx 15$ </tex-math></inline-formula> 860 K, and the hybrid plasma propagation velocity is <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\approx 1000$ </tex-math></inline-formula> m/s. These transient propagating hybrid plasmas are enough to ignite all unimodular charges in the chamber within 1.0 ms. The results provide an important reference for future ETC launch tests.