Influence of Bore Parameters and Effective Mass Ratio on the Launching Accuracy of Electromagnetic Launchers

An electromagnetic launcher is a kind of rail symmetrical distribution launcher. When a symmetrical current is passed between the rails, the strong magnetic field is symmetrically distributed between the two rails. The bore parameters affect the efficiency and accuracy of the launcher. Launching accuracy is an important evaluation content for assessing the technical index of the electromagnetic launcher. In this paper, experiments were carried out to investigate the influence factors of the launching accuracy of a small-caliber electromagnetic launcher. The experimental results show that: (1) The consistency of the muzzle velocity increases with the increase of the rail separation. When the rail separation is 16 mm, the mean deviation of the muzzle velocity is the smallest, at 16.71, 15.72, and 10.77, respectively. When the rail separation is constant, the mean deviation of the muzzle velocity is 10.77, while the convex arc height is 1 mm. Increasing the rail separation and the convex arc height is beneficial to improving the consistency of the initial velocity. (2) When the rail separation is certain, increasing the convex arc height significantly improves the firing accuracy and firing intensity, and when the convex arc height increases from 0 mm to 1 mm, the firing intensity is reduced from 9.6 to 4.41, and the firing intensity decreases from 10.34 to 5.79, which significantly reduces the firing deviation and increases the muzzle consistency of the armature under repeated firing conditions. (3) The muzzle attitude is mainly affected by the effective mass ratio. Within a certain range, adding load can make the muzzle attitude of the integrated projectile more stable. However, when the load mass is too large, it will have a negative impact on the muzzle attitude. The results show that under the two cases of the effective mass ratio of 0.43 and 0.49, the integrated projectile has a better muzzle attitude.