Comparison of salvo performance between stacked and paralleled double-projectile railgun

Multi-projectile railgun belongs to one kind of novel electromagnetic launchers. It implements synchronous launch of many projectiles per fire. The salvo performance is very important to its structure design. Because of easier analysis and less manufacturing cost, the research of double-projectile railgun will be first considered. Moreover, the achievements can lead to significant application for multi-projectile railgun. We propose two kinds of double-projectile railgun. This paper describes the one whose rail pairs are paralleled. Considering the influence of armatures' position, we calculate the self- and mutual-inductance gradient by 3-D eddy-current field analysis. Subsequent circuit simulation of the launching process shows that the paralleled double-projectile railgun cannot achieve salvo. Two test scaled prototypes are designed and manufactured. The experiment results lead to the conclusion that the salvo performance of the stacked railgun is better than that of the paralleled one. Therefore, the stacked configuration will be a valuable contribution to the design of multi-projectile railgun.