Electrical and thermal modeling of railguns
Abstract
Electrical and thermal modeling of railguns was accomplished to obtain detailed information about the behavior of specific railgun components such as the rails, and to predict overall performance of railgun tests. Emphasis was on calculations of the inductance and surface current distribution of long parallel conductors in the high-frequency limit and on calculations of current and thermal diffusion in rails. Inductance was calculated for various rail cross sections and for magnetic flux compression generators. Inductance and current distribution results were compared with experimental measurements. Two dimensional calculations of current and thermal diffusion in rail cross sections and predictions of rail heating and melting as a function of rail size and total current are discussed. An overall performance model of a railgun and power supply was developed and used to design tests. The lumped-parameter circuit model uses results from the detailed inductance and current diffusion calculations along with other circuit component models to predict rail current and projectile acceleration, velocity, and position as a function of time.
- Publication:
-
NASA STI/Recon Technical Report N
- Pub Date:
- 1983
- Bibcode:
- 1983STIN...8413387K
- Keywords:
-
- Current Density;
- Inductance;
- Mathematical Models;
- Railgun Accelerators;
- Thermal Diffusion;
- Acceleration (Physics);
- Component Reliability;
- Equivalent Circuits;
- Heating;
- Magnetic Fields;
- Melting;
- Projectiles;
- Engineering (General)