Current distributions in the surfaces of railgun rails

This paper demonstrates the use of the Boundary Element Method (BEM) to study current and field distributions in railguns. The method is much simpler than earlier reported methods and is versatile in its applications. Good accuracy is obtained using few elements. Constant elements were used. The work included study of the effects of a rectangular conducting tube encasing the MRL RIPPER railgun, and it is found that although there are important changes in current distribution, the effect on projectile acceleration is negligible. The use of induced voltages on the tube to monitor railgun behavior is discussed.