Design and Analysis of the 270-kJ PPS for Augmented Railgun

Augmented railgun as advanced mass accelerators, which are using an additional magnetic field to support the launching process. In conventional electromagnetic accelerators, the electrical current through the rails and the armature have to be very large to achieve a sufficiently high electromagnetic force that accelerates the projectile. The electrical energy for the launching process is supplied by a pulsed power supply. The 9-kJ pulsed power units have been built for the 270kJ electromagnetic launchers. The 270-kJ powered power supply can fine-adjust the current and reduce the voltage of the thyristor switch and capacitor demands to maximize the economic benefit. The 9-kJ pulsed power units have been built for the 270-kJ electromagnetic launchers. In this paper, the two-turn augmented railgun with a 15 mm × 23 mm bore and 2.5-m-long rails were designed, which enable to accelerate the 15-g projectile to velocities above 2.5 km/s. It was driven by the 270-kJ pulsed power system. The maximum efficiency of whole electromagnetic launching system can reach 20%.