Modeling and Validation of the Effects of Induced Fields in Railguns

The electromagnetic launcher is currently being explored as an alternative to propellant gun systems to satisfy the ordnance requirements of future military systems. Recent improvements in component technologies have increased the plausibility of making the electromagnetic launcher a practical alternative to chemically driven guns. The U.S. Army Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center's Benet Laboratories has developed an experimental electromagnetic launcher to investigate issues associated with the bore life of rail guns. It serves as an erosion simulator to provide a test bed for validation of new theories on the origins of the dominant erosion mechanisms. A lumped parameter model of the simulator has been developed to provide a means of predicting performance based on the insights provided by experimental findings and a distributed solution of the induced fields. Test results agree very well with predicted behavior and demonstrate that the dominant erosion mechanisms observed in large scale systems can be reproduced on much smaller scale.