A comparison of formulations for 3D finite element modeling of electromagnetic launchers

The electromagnetic launcher at speed is a challenging computational problem as fast time transient electromagnetic fields are involved and the velocity of the moving parts is designed to be very high. A large number of formulations are now available for modeling the electromagnetic behavior of moving conductor devices in 3D. These methods vary in computational expense and accuracy. In this paper, the authors describe and compare some of these methods, and show some examples.