Analysis of the performance of tubular pulsed coil induction launchers

The authors present a scheme for modeling coil guns using finite elements. The relative motion between the coils and the projectile is modeled by using two distinct meshes which are coupled using Lagrange multipliers which depend on the relative position of the two meshes. This scheme allows the inner mesh to slide during the transient simulation without the need to remesh the problem. Results are presented for a simple experiment involving a single coil and aluminum projectile