Design considerations in a 60 caliber electromagnetic railgun system

Author

Fulcher, C.W.G. ; Faidley, R.W. ; Ingram, M.W. ; Pratap, S.B. ; Spann, M.L.

Author_Institution

Center for Electromech., Texas Univ., Austin, TX, USA

Volume

25

Issue

1

fYear

1989

fDate

1/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

186

Lastpage

192

Abstract

A design code has been developed to aid in the development of a compact 60-caliber EM (electromagnetic) launcher system, based on a standard multivariable optimization technique. A lumped circuit model which was verified with a sophisticated performance program serves as the core of the code. The design code provides an optimum set of 13 compulsator rotor design parameters that minimizes the rotor mass subject to eight design constraints for a single railgun discharge. These design parameters are rotor radius, rotor length, armature conductor thickness, banding thickness, number of conductors per pole, launcher length, launcher inductance gradient, projectile velocity, generator voltage, maximum allowable decrease in rotor angular velocity, pulse width, electrical frequency, and firing angle

Keywords

alternators; electromagnetic launchers; power supplies to apparatus; pulsed power technology; rotors; armature conductor thickness; banding thickness; compulsator rotor design parameters; electrical frequency; electromagnetic railgun system; firing angle; generator voltage; launcher inductance gradient; launcher length; lumped circuit model; projectile velocity; pulse width; rotor angular velocity; rotor length; rotor radius; standard multivariable optimization; Circuits; Code standards; Conductors; Design optimization; Electromagnetic launching; Inductance; Projectiles; Railguns; Rotors; Standards development;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.22531

Filename

22531