Design and Simulation of a Large Muzzle Kinetic Energy Railgun

A large muzzle kinetic energy railgun is developed to demonstrate the supersonic launch of 200 mm projectiles. A trade is studied that evaluates over 30 different railgun cases resulted in the selection of a simple railgun as the choice. The goal of the railgun launches a 200 mm diameter projectile with a mass of greater 20 kg to a velocity of 2500 m/s, and the muzzle kinetic energy is more than 62 MJ. The analysis and modeling of the electromagnetic launch results in an adequate design. The final railgun is designed with an 8 m barrel and characterized by the following parameters: conducting rails with an inductance gradient about 0.4 μH/m, a peak current of about 7 MA, an effective current of no <; 6 MA, the projectile muzzle velocity of 2540 m/s, the muzzle kinetic energy of more than 63 MJ, and the system efficiency of 31.8%. A more detailed study is presented in this paper.