Structural Mechanics of Railguns With Open Barrels and Elastic Supports: The Influence of Multishot Operation

Abstract

The dynamic behavior of the railgun housing including the rails is of great importance for the system performance. The transient loading (magnetic pressure) may have a negative influence on the sliding electrical contact required for this acceleration technology. Therefore, the analysis of the displacement of the inner rail surfaces due to elastic waves is of great importance. The French-German Research Institute of Saint Louis (ISL) is operating several railguns with housings characterized by an open barrel design allowing for innovative diagnostic techniques. The repelling forces between the rails are countered using discrete steel bolts. The rails are mounted to bars made from composite material. In the past, we presented the experimental and numerical findings concerning the dynamic behavior of such railguns in single shot mode. In this paper, we present for the first time 3-D finite element calculations concerning the dynamical behavior of the ISL RApid FIre RAilgun operating in multishot mode. Multishot scenarios with fire rates of 50 Hz are considered and particular attention is paid to the question if the dynamical behavior of the railgun is influenced by preceding shots. IndexTerms-3-D model, finite-element method, multishot, open barrel, railgun, transient dynamics.

Magnetomechanical study of open-bore two-rail electromagnetic launcher

“…This chapter provides an overview of the literature on investigation scopes and methods of the EM launcher application. Parts of this chapter are published in Schneider et al (2013), Stonkus et al (2015) and .…”

“…The main results of the doctoral dissertation were published in 7 scientific papers: 4 papers in journals indexed in Clarivate Analytics Web of Science (Schneider et al 2013), (Stonkus et al 2015), , (Račkauskas et al 2018) 1 paper in conference proceedings indexed in Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Proceedings (Stonkus et al 2015), and 2 paper in conference proceedings (Račkauskas et al 2015), (Račkauskas et al 2016). The author has made 4 presentations at 4 scientific conferences at national and international levels:…”

“…The second model presents the full EM launcher behaviour during its operation. Parts of this chapter are published in Stonkus et al (2015) and , .…”

“…Stonkus et al 2015), 2 -recenzuojamose tarptautinių konferencijų medžiagose(Račkauskas et al 2015),(Račkauskas et al 2016).…”

Investigation of armature-rail interaction in linear electromagnetic launcher

“…The uniform magnetic pressures acting on the rail surfaces (high-frequency approximation) and repelling the rails from each other's were evaluated on experimental results. Recent developments in the field of computational physics allow apply complex multi-physical (electromagnetic-mechanical) analysis [11].…”