Resonant Behavior of an Augmented Railgun

TL;DR

This paper models an augmented electromagnetic railgun with coupled circuits, revealing a resonance in armature kinetic energy dependent on the augmentation circuit's frequency, which can optimize performance.

Contribution

It introduces a lumped circuit model of an augmented railgun with inductive coupling and identifies a resonance phenomenon affecting kinetic energy and efficiency.

Findings

Resonance in armature kinetic energy as a function of augmentation frequency

Potential to optimize railgun performance through frequency tuning

Highlighting the importance of considering resonance in design

Abstract

We consider a lumped circuit model of an augmented electromagnetic railgun that consists of a gun circuit and an augmentation circuit that is inductively coupled to the gun circuit. The gun circuit is driven by a d.c. voltage generator, and the augmentation circuit is driven by an a.c. voltage generator. Using sample parameters, we numerically solve the three non-linear dynamical equations that describe this system. We find that there is a resonant behavior in the armature kinetic energy as a function of the frequency of the voltage generator in the augmentation circuit. This resonant behavior may be exploited to increase armature kinetic energy. Alternatively, if the presence of the kinetic energy resonance is not taken into account, parameters may be chosen that result in less than optimal kinetic energy and efficiency.