Inductively Coupled Augmented Railgun

Abstract

We derive the non-linear dynamical equations for an augmented electromagnetic railgun, whose augmentation circuit is inductively coupled to the gun circuit. We solve these differential equations numerically using example parameter values. We find a complicated interaction between the augmentation circuit, gun circuit, and mechanical degrees of freedom, leading to a complicated optimization problem. For certain values of parameters, we find that an augmented electromagnetic railgun has an armature kinetic energy that is 42% larger than the same railgun with no augmentation circuit. Optimizing the parameters may lead to further increase in performance.