New solid armature design concept (for railguns)

Abstract

Solid armatures in railgun applications experience extreme mechanical, thermal, and electromagnetic conditions. They must be able to survive a launch without undue bore damage, and yet have as small a mass as possible. A novel solid armature concept is presented, some of the factors influencing its design are examined, and some relationships are established among the physical parameters which characterize its operation. A novel feature of the armature design is the separation of the finger or fiber contact design from the bulk of the armature which simply transports current across the rails. This latter region should be transposed, because in virtually all practical cases, the current nonuniformity due to the velocity-skin effect would otherwise be large. The transposed region could be made different material than the contact region. This different material need not be mechanically strong, since it will be probably be imbedded in a matrix. Its selection can therefore be based on different criteria, such as achieving low mass. >