Simulation on the Development of the Liquefied Film at Rail-Armature Interface During High-Speed Sliding Electrical Contact

At the beginning of launching process in an electromagnetic rail launcher system, the concentration of electric current density causes melting at certain locations on the armature. As the current continues to load, along with the effect of frictional heating, the melting areas gradually expand, and a portion of the melt moves with the armature to form a nearly stable liquefied film, which significantly impacts the startup and subsequent acceleration processes of the armature. A simulation model of coupled field with electromagnetic, thermal, and fluid using ANSYS Fluent software is constructed. And liquefied film is approximately regarded as Couette flow. By using quasi twodimensional simulation calculations, the motion law of the liquid film flow is obtained, and by three-dimensional analyzing of the high-speed motion process, the mass loss of the armature tail as well as the development of liquefied film is obtained.