Research on Armature Recovery of a Coil Launcher

At present, the boost payload of electromagnetic coil launcher mainly adopts integrated launching mode; that is, the armature and payload are integrated into a projectile to shoot out of the bore together. There are some problems with this kind of launching form, such as high parasitic mass and low efficiency of payload launching. In this article, a payload projection scheme of armature-load separation launching is proposed. When the armature and payload reach the peak velocity, the armature is separated from the payload by electromagnetic capture force, and the armature can be recovered and reused under certain conditions. A model of five-stage coil launcher is established and the interior trajectory characteristics of armature under the integrated launching and separation launching modes are compared by simulation. It is shown that the mass of armature will exaggerate the launching performance. The armature-load separated launching mode can effectively improve the launching efficiency. Then the armature recovery method is further proposed. The armature velocity is related to many factors such as mass ratio of armature and payload, driving voltage, and turns of the last coil stage. The study proves that under certain conditions, the armature can be recovered, which could improve the safety of launch.