Power Supply Options for a Naval Railgun

TL;DR

This study compares capacitor and coil-based power supplies for naval railguns using simulations, highlighting efficiency, current behavior, and projectile velocity, and suggests coil systems can be optimized with modular design.

Contribution

It introduces a simulation-based analysis of coil versus capacitor power supplies for railguns, proposing modular coil systems as a viable alternative.

Findings

Capacitor systems produce more favorable current pulses for delicate payloads.

Coil systems' disadvantages can be mitigated by modular design.

Efficiency depends heavily on circuit resistance.

Abstract

Large railguns require powerful power supply units. At the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis (ISL) most experimental railguns are driven by power supply units based on capacitors. Recent investigations at ISL explore the possibility to use coil based systems to increase the energy density of the power supply. In this study an electrical circuit simulation is used to investigate the difference for railgun operation in between a capacitor and a coil based power supply with respect to current amplitude behavior and projectile velocity. For this a scenario of a 25 MJ muzzle energy railgun is simulated with two different power supply options, replacing capacitors by coils and using a range of circuit resistances. The resistance determines to a large part the losses of the system and defines therefore the efficiency of the launch and the size of the power supply. The interpretation of the results of the performed simulations leads to the conclusion that the capacitor based system "naturally" pro- duces a favorable current pulse trace with respect to launching a mechanical delicate payload. Further simulations show that the disadvantage of the inductor based supply can be mitigated by increasing the power supply unit subdivision into smaller units.