Investigation of the Driving Ability on Concave Armature

Driving ability of the armature is one of the important launching characteristics on rail gun. To push heavier load effectively with less mass is an important goal to pursue for the armature design. The armature used to be launched or push load is mainly designed in C shape. Whether the C-shaped armature is the best choice for the electromagnetic rail gun launching or not? Based on the above question, this paper proposes a novel concave armature. Similar to the principle of arch bridge, the concave shape is used to design the armature arm in order to withstand the electromagnetic force. The concave arm structure can transfer the electromagnetic force to the force that pushes the load and the pressure that the armature applies to rails, so that the concave arm avoids fracture due to the large electromagnetic force, and the driving ability for the armature is improved. This paper focuses on the comparison of driving ability between the concave armature and C-shaped armature. The C-shaped armature and concave armature, with the same mass and similar structure, also with the same load mass, are designed. Electromagnetic and mechanical coupled calculation under the same condition is conducted. Through analyzing the stress and deformation, a primary conclusion is drawn that the concave armature can push a heavy load and has small deformation. An experimental research is carried out to verify the driving ability of pushing heavy load for two armatures. It provides valuable reference for engineering design.