Research on the sliding electrical contact of the high fire frequency launcher

Abstract

the sliding electrical contact between the armature and the rails is affected by the high current driving and the friction heating during the launching process, especially in high fire frequency applications. The contact performance is closely related to the resistance between the armature and the rails. A high fire frequency launcher was designed for the study of the sliding electrical contact. The pulsed power system consists of ten 100kJ pulse forming units with a total stored energy of 1MJ, and the length of the launcher is 1310 mm with a caliber size of 18 mm × 18 mm. Two types of armatures are adopted, one is the C-shaped armature, and another is the double C-shaped armature. Two 5g armatures can be launched at a frequency of 166Hz with a muzzle speed of 800m/s. The effect of contact resistance by the temperature rise can be calculated approximately with the heating. Experimental results shown that the contact resistance is seriously affected by the electromagnetic force and the contact temperature, the contact resistance of the second armature is between 0.8 mΩ-2.6mΩ, which is higher than that of the first armature (0.2mΩ-0.3mΩ).

A review of static/quasi-static calculations of Electromagnetic-thermal coupling sliding electrical contact characteristics of armature and rails

“…Other scholars have proposed concave armature and saddle-shaped armature as shown in Figure 4 [43], which can effectively improve the concentration of current in the throat to obtain the ability to carry more current and improve the contact performance. The U.S. Navy has studied round-bore electromagnetic rail guns with ring armatures for firing, and the paper [44] compared the contact performance of C-shaped armatures and ring armatures, and studied the effect of rail temperature rise on contact performance during rapid repeated firing. Currently, electromagnetic guns are gradually developing towards engineering and weaponization, and all countries are starting to research on projectiles for electromagnetic launch, so it is also necessary to further improve the armature structure to adapt to the launch requirements of integrated projectiles.…”

Data Processing Approaches to Measure Velocity of Electromagnetic Gun on Laser Screen in Complex Environment

“…The electromagnetic gun is a new type of weapon developed with electromagnetic rail launch technology [1]. The launching velocity of the armature determines the initial kinetic energy imparted by the electromagnetic gun.…”