Numerical simulation of dynamic large deformation and fracture damage for solid armature in electromagnetic railgun

The design of solid armature of railgun should take full account of its operating conditions and material properties because the armature is subjected to dynamic loading conditions and experiences a complicated electrical, thermal and mechanical process in the interior ballistic cycle. In this paper present, we first introduced a multi-physical field model of railgun, followed by several examples to investigate the launching process. Especially, we used the explicit finite element method, in which material nonlinearity and geometric nonlinearity were accounted, to investigate the deform behaviors of solid armature. The results show that the dynamic mechanical process of armature is dependent on the armature geometry, material and exciting electric current. By the numerical simulation, the understanding of the fracture mechanism of solid armature was deepened.