Design, Fabrication, and Experimental Results of a Pulsed Power-Based Four-Stage Induction Coilgun for Launching a Heavy Projectile

Since 2016, Hanwha Defense Corporation has been working on applying electromagnetic launch technologies such as induction coilguns to cold-launch systems that can launch guided missiles. First, a design procedure of a multistage coilgun system based on the pulsed power driven by capacitor banks was developed using the Taguchi method, and a laboratory-scale three-stage coilgun capable of launching a 21.68-kg projectile at a maximum speed of 27.5 m/s was built and the results of the experiment were announced in 2018. In this article, we design, fabricate, and present the experimental results of a pulsed power-based four-stage induction coilgun using the proposed procedure to prove the validity of the electromagnetic launch technology for heavy missile launch. In this experiment, a 100-kg projectile was fired under 4-kV charging conditions, the maximum speed of the projectile was 25 m/s or more, and an efficiency of 15% was achieved without considering the mass of the armature. In this study, by accelerating a 100-kg projectile to 27 m/s, the feasibility of an electromagnetic launcher developed for heavy missile launch was verified.