Experimental study of railgun aluminum armature electrical contact ablation

Abstract

Because of strong current, friction and arcing, electrical contact ablation occurs in the transmitting process of electromagnetic railgun, which is also one key issue in application. In this paper, an experimental apparatus is designed to detect electromagnetic railgun armature contacts ablation. Energy dispersive X-ray, scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution camera and rogowski coil are used to measure mass loss, volume change, the ablation layer analysis, the element distribution on ablation layer section and the electrical contact analysis. Experimental results show that the input current and the contact pressure between electrodes are the major factors contributing to the ablation volume loss and mass loss. It is also showed that as a sliding electrode, the aluminum armature ablates more seriously during launch.

A Railgun Secondary Propulsion System for High-Speed Hyperloop Transportation

“…Copper is selected as the rail material in this study as it is a common and standard electromagnetic rail material [12], [13], [14]. Iron [15], [9], [16] and aluminum [17], [18] are selected as armature materials in this study as they have been tested in prior literature as viable linear actuator or armature cores; iron and aluminum also have vastly different material properties, which makes for and interesting comparative analysis, and have never been analyzed for hyperloop propulsion applications. Three different armature geometries are analyzed: convex, concave, and topology optimized.…”