3D modeling of sliding electrical contact

Author

Hsieh, K.-T. ; Kim, B.K.

Author_Institution

Inst. for Adv. Technol., Texas Univ., Austin, TX, USA

Volume

33

Issue

1

fYear

1997

fDate

1/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

237

Lastpage

239

Abstract

The condition of the armature-rail interface is critical to the performance of a railgun system. A full understanding of sliding electrical contact (SEC) and an ability to model the phenomenon are needed to advance railgun technology. An SEC model which includes the friction and contact resistance is presented in this paper. The heat generated due to the friction and contact resistance are modeled as surface heat flux sources. The contact resistance is dependent on the electrical resistivity of contact components, the hardness of the softer contact component, and the contact force. The developed model is implemented with the computer code EMAP3D, which is a 3D Lagrangian finite element program for coupled mechanical, thermal, and electromagnetic diffusive processes with moving conductors. The effect of the SEC model is studied through numerical simulation of the sample problem

Keywords

contact resistance; electrical contacts; finite element analysis; railguns; sliding friction; 3D model; EMAP3D computer code; Lagrangian finite element program; armature-rail interface; contact force; contact resistance; electrical resistivity; electromagnetic diffusive processes; friction; hardness; heat flux; mechanical processes; moving conductor; numerical simulation; railgun; sliding electrical contact; thermal processes; Contact resistance; Electric resistance; Electromagnetic coupling; Electromagnetic modeling; Finite element methods; Friction; Lagrangian functions; Railguns; Surface resistance; Thermal conductivity;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.559961

Filename

559961