The Launching Technique of Hypervelocity Projectiles in Two-Stage Light Gas Gun

The launching technique to enhance the projectile velocities of a two-stage light gas gun was studied in this paper. The effects of various filling parameters on the projectile velocities were discussed in detail by numerical calculation. We find that higher projectile velocities can be obtained with less powder charges by reducing the projectile mass, piston mass and gas pressures. Presently, we have obtained velocities of 7.2 km/s, 5.7 km/s and 7.4 km/s for projectiles with weight of 30 g, 60 g and 26 g respectively, when the powder charge is 5 kg. When the filling is 3.5 kg, a projectile weighing 10.3 g achieves a velocity of 8.1 km/s.