The AWE Large Bore Gas Gun Facility

The Large Bore Gas Gun facility has been recently established by AWE in partnership with Cranfield University. The Large Bore Gas Gun (LBGG) itself is a 100 mm bore single stage Helium driven launcher. This gun has previously been used with inert targets, however the new facility has enabled significant upgrades to be commissioned. The most significant consist of a doubling of the barrel length to 12 m and the rating of the gun for ~ 100 g + explosive targets. The launcher enables multi kilogram projectiles to be accelerated to over 1.6 kms^-1.

The facility is currently going through a commissioning phase, the end result will offer diagnostics including 32 channel PDV, electromagnetic PV gauges using a large electromagnet system and high speed video.

This poster presents results of the commissioning including velocity curves and also provides a look at the results of initial experimental campaigns.

This facility represents a significant uplift in UK inert and explosive target capable gas gun facility and will enable a wide range of experiments to be performed, for instance utilising the large bore size to enable multiple targets to be shocked simultaneously.

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