Design and experiment of reluctance electromagnetic launcher with new style armature

Launching efficiency and shoot precision are the important qualifications for reluctance launcher. The discharge current in driving coils not only magnetizes the ferromagnetic armature, but also stimulates eddy-current in the armature. Thus, it´s needed to take measures to decrease the eddy-current for its negative effect to acceleration. It introduced the working principle of the reluctance electromagnetic launcher in brief at first, and then it analyzed the effect of armature structure. After that it designed a five stages reluctance launcher to verify the conclusions of theoretical analysis. Furthermore, it designed three kinds of armatures to test: cylindrical armature, cylindrical armature with slot and armature with fin. Contrasting the experiment results of launching, it found that the armature with slot has highest launching efficiency and the armature with fin has best shoot precision. Thus, it can draw the conclusions that the slot in the cross section of armature can eliminate the formation of eddy-current and improve the launching efficiency; however, it can improve the shoot precision by furnishing a tail at the rear of armature.