Parametric Modeling and Structural Analysis of Augmented Railgun

Abstract

Railgun is a device, which converts electrical energy into mechanical energy for accelerating the projectile to hypervelocity. It uses the magnetic field generated by rail current to accelerate the projectile between the conducting rails. Creating a current loop that flows from some large power source down one rail, across the projectile, and back up the other rail forces the railgun. The rails need to withstand enormous repulsive forces during shooting, and this force tends to push them apart and away from the projectile. In order to optimize the performance of the railgun, it is proposed to employ augmented railgun instead of normal single turn railgun. This system is primarily employed to military applications.

The project significantly deals with developing scripts (program) in Ansys APDL. Parametric modeling and non linear static structural analysis constitutes the part of assessment. Parametric modeling is carried out by specifying the parameters to account for the varying sizes, shapes (Rectangular, Hexagonal and Circular) & Augmentation (2, 4 & 8) of Railgun.

The modeling and structural analysis sections (modules) are being configured in a Parametric Software. The software consists of Electromagnetic (EM) analysis module which interconnects modeling and structural analysis for estimating forces acting on current carrying components within the system. The results (for RG-1) interprets the effects of varying armature (projectile) positions and differing mesh sizes on total deformation ,bolt deformation, stresses and contact pressures in complete system.