Office of Naval Research
The Tai-Yang Research Company (TYRC), of Tallahassee Florida, in partnership with the Center for Advanced Power Systems at Florida State University proposes to develop an integrated cable and termination system for the Navy electromagnetic railgun.
The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division has recently test fired its electromagnetic railgun prototype to a world record energy of 33 MJ. A robust technology development program sponsored by the Office of Naval Research is underway to further increase the Significant engineering challenges related to shipboard integration remain to be addressed. One important challenge is to develop a configuration of power supply cables and terminations that can carry large pulsed currents at high rates of fire and be feasibly integrated onto a ship platform.
The proposed cable design will address known Navy requirements for current, voltage, temperature rise and mechanical loading. The program will investigate feasible options for flow cooling and conductor materials to achieve meaningful increase in pulse energy and firing rate.