Compact homopolar generator developed at CEM-UT

Attention is given to a project concerned with the development of a field-portable electromagnetic launcher (EML) system. The initial step in this project involved the design, the fabrication, and test of a prototype homopolar generator (HPG). One of these machines will drive an 85-g projectile to 3 km/s in a 4-m gun, or a 10-g projectile to 10 km/s in a 5.5-m gun. The prototype compact HPG is considered along with auxiliary systems, the HPG systems tester, and experiments. The HPG system tester has been built and used to develop components needed to further improve the HPG's performance and energy density. Faster spinning of the HPG rotor is the most direct method of improving energy density.