Research on the Armature Structure Optimization of the Toroidal Reconnected Electromagnetic Launcher

In the launch process of the multistage synchronous induction electromagnetic launcher (SIEL), the armature is usually accelerated step by step. Due to the impact of high instantaneous electromagnetic force and large acceleration fluctuation, some kinds of sensitive loads may be damaged during the launching process. To reduce the harm that caused by the abovementioned issue, this article proposes an optimized armature and an asynchronous pulse discharge scheme to smooth the acceleration curve based on the toroidal reconnected electromagnetic launcher (TREL). First, a mathematical coupling model of the single-stage TREL is built to describe the energy conversion relationship between the driving coils and the armature. Then, the dynamics characteristics of the TREL model based on two armature structures and two discharge schemes are analyzed through the finite-element method. Finally, the simulation results demonstrate that the large acceleration fluctuation of the armature can be effectively cut down with the proposed methods.