Analysis and Research on Muzzle Arc Suppression Device of Arc Striking Railgun

Abstract

Aiming at the problem of muzzle arc in the process of electromagnetic railgun launching, a muzzle arc suppression device based on gap arc discharge is designed. The working process and principle of arc suppression device for gap arc striking discharge are analyzed. The key of the design is to ensure that the discharge gap of the arc suppression device can conduct the arc quickly and reliably after the armature is out of the bore. The arc suppression circuit based on the principle of discharge and energy consumption can effectively absorb the residual energy of the muzzle and reduce the arc erosion between the muzzle rail end face and the armature tail. Using Simulink software the simulation model of electromagnetic rail launch system with arc suppression device is built, and the arc suppression current of the arc-starting circuit after the armature exits the muzzle was simulated. Through the simulation calculation of several groups of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$R_{s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$L_{s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> parameters, The influence of the impedance of arc suppression device on the starting time of arc striking, the rising time of arc suppression current, the peak value of arc suppression circuit current, and the current of armature branch is analyzed. The correctness of the simulation model and theoretical analysis calculation is verified by experiments. The waveform analysis of test data shows that the arc striking principle arc suppression device has no effect on the launching performance of the armature when it runs in the bore, and almost all the current flows through the arc suppression circuit after the armature goes out of the muzzle, which can effectively suppress the muzzle arc and improve the launching performance of the rail gun.