Analysis of the Research Progress of Electromagnetic Railgun Based on CiteSpace

An electromagnetic railgun is a new type of weapon with ultrahigh speed based on electromagnetic thrust. It is used in important military domains, such as long-range strikes, strategic air defense, and ballistic interception. It is also used in aerospace fields, such as space debris cleanup, microsatellite launch, and space station relay launch, so its future prospects are excellent. We analyzed 1324 publications on electromagnetic railgun using CiteSpace and identified information including authors, institutions, journals, and popular research topics and trends. Our analysis found that the University of Texas is the research institution that has published the most documents on electromagnetic railgun, and French researcher Markus Schneider has published the most documents. The journals of IEEE Transactions on Magnetics and IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science have played an important role in promoting the development of electromagnetic railgun. The research direction of electromagnetic railgun has a distinct multidisciplinary characteristic because it touches on physics, engineering science, mathematics, materials science, energy and fuel, communication technology, instrumentation, and computer science. The development process of electromagnetic railgun can be grouped into three stages: basic theoretical research, engineering research, and system optimization research. The major research topics include electromagnetic force, armature design, rail materials, pulsed power supply, armature–rail contact surface characteristics, and coupling analysis of multiple physical fields. Future electromagnetic railgun will be scalable in terms of armature–rail contact characteristics and life span, energy storage density of power supply, current-carrying capability and thermal management of launcher materials, optimization design of armature structure, and complex data processing of control systems.