DISCARDING ARMATURE AND BARREL OPTIMIZATION FOR A CANNON CALIBER ELECTROMAGNETIC LAUNCHER SYSTEM

This publication details the optimization and baseline design of the d iscarding metal armature and electromagnetic railgun developed for the U.S. Army Armament Research Development and Engineering Center and U. S. Marine Corps sponsored Cannon Caliber Electromagnetic Launcher prog ram. The primary goals of this program have been to defeat specified t argets at 1,500 and 3,000 m range utilizing an electromagnetic launche r system weighing less than 5,000 lb. An optimization algorithm was de veloped to integrate the armor-penetrating sub-projectile with a disca rding armature/sabot forming an integrated launch package. This algori thm coupled integrated launch package electromagnetic and structural d esign requirements to launcher design parameters including rail resist ance per unit length and inductance per unit length as a function of l auncher rail geometric and structural configurations. Pulsed power sup ply size and mass requirements were subsequently estimated from launch er performance predictions. This study shows that minimizing breech en ergy required by the launcher will minimize total system mass. A two-t urn augmented, rectangular bore barrel, firing a mid-drive discarding armature that launches its subprojectile at 1,850 m/s resulted in mini mum system mass. The series augmented electromagnetic launcher will be powered by a 4-pole, air-core, compulsator that stores the total laun ch energy inertially in its composite rotor. This compulsator driven e lectromagnetic test bed will be capable of accelerating 15 each, 185 g integrated launch packages in three salvos of five shots, with a shot rate of 300 rounds per minute and two seconds between salvos.